MA Alfonso and M. Perez
Sunday, September 15, 2024, 2:50 p.m.
The Spanish government “absolutely” rejects any suggestion that it participated in a conspiracy to destabilize Venezuela and overthrow its president, Nicolás Maduro. Sources from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs have stated this Sunday that the Executive only wants a “peaceful and democratic solution” to the Venezuelan conflict and denied all accusations from the Chavista regime. Its Minister of the Interior, Diosdado Cabello, declared this Saturday that Spain “is neck-deep in” the alleged and confusing plot reported by his department to carry out a coup against Maduro.
The Foreign Ministry has also denied that the two Bilbao residents arrested, José María Basoa and Andrés Martínez Adasme, have any connection with the National Intelligence Centre, according to the same accusation made by Cabello. The two could have been arrested at the beginning of the month in the border town of Puerto Ayacucho and are now believed to be in Caracas along with three other foreign citizens and several Venezuelans arrested in the same operation.
“Any claim of US involvement in a plot to overthrow Maduro is categorically false.” The White House has also denied with this statement the accusations of the Chavistas about their involvement in the alleged conspiracy. This is not something new in the behaviour of the regime, which has attributed to the US the role of instigator in many of the demonstrations held last August against the quasi-self-proclaimed electoral victory of Nicolás Maduro.
Relatives of the two Basque citizens denied to this newspaper on Saturday night that they had anything to do with a political plot and explained that both had been on holiday in South America since August. The inconsistencies about the case are numerous. The theory that José María Basua and Andrés Martínez Adasme have ended up involved in a strange series of accusations by the Bolivarian Executive is accumulating more and more clues. Apart from the American and Spanish denials (both by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and by the National Intelligence Centre, which has denied that they were agents in its service), the Colombian authorities have also described them as two simple “tourists” visiting one of the most beautiful areas of the Amazon.
Jungle destination
Basua and Adasme visited the border town of Inírida, probably attracted like thousands of other foreigners by its jungle beauty, and on their return to the Venezuelan city of Puerto Ayacucho, in the southwest of the country, they were presumably arrested by the Bolivarian police. The arrest is believed to have taken place on September 2, since from then on they became untraceable. According to the Venezuelan minister, they were taking photographs of certain airport facilities and inquiring about how they could “obtain explosives”, aspects categorically rejected by their families.
Puerto Inírida is located in the heart of the Amazon. There is no mass tourism, but it is a pilgrimage and meeting destination for nature lovers and, especially, bird watchers. The area is dotted with hiking trails and preserves thousands of square kilometres of natural parks. The two young men from Bilbao arrived and left there in a regular boat. The absence of roads is made up for by boats and light aircraft.
Puerto Ayacucho is located on the other side of the border, on the banks of the Orinoco River. The relationship between the two municipalities is close, to the point that many residents of Inídira cross the river to do business or visit Venezuelan medical centers. During the repression unleashed by the Maduro government to quell protests against the electoral fraud, security forces arrested human rights lawyer Henry Alexander Gómez and other people in Puerto Ayacucho this August.
The statements released in the last few hours by the White House indicate that Washington “continues to support a democratic solution to the political crisis in Venezuela” and confirm the arrest of three compatriots in the operation of the Bolivarian security forces. According to Cabello, one of them is a former marine who was at the head of the alleged conspiracy. The minister also implicates the CIA and the FBI.
Serious escalation
The diplomatic crisis between Spain and Venezuela is escalating in severity when it seemed that the Government of Nicolás Maduro was trying to avoid the disagreement in order to defend its commercial interests. The Minister of the Interior, Diosdado Cabello, announced yesterday the arrest of the two Spanish citizens – both from Bilbao – whom he identified as agents of the National Intelligence Centre and accused them of being linked to an alleged plan to “destabilise the country” and attempt to assassinate important figures of the regime. Cabello showed a voluminous arsenal of 400 rifles and pistols that, in his opinion, was going to be used by the conspirators. He assured that all this material and its corresponding ammunition came from the United States and insinuated that the FBI could have turned a blind eye so that they could be flown out of Miami.
Among the alleged targets is a mayor with close ties to Chavismo, but also the president himself and the vice president and oil minister, Delcy Rodríguez, according to the regime’s version. Since the beginning of the citizen demonstrations against the alleged fraud in the elections at the end of July, the Maduro government has frequently denounced “acts of terrorism” and coup attempts, which is how it usually describes the civil protests against it.
The relatives of the Spaniards have categorically rejected the accusations of the regime and insisted that the two young men – one of whom still lives in Bilbao and the other abroad – were in the South American country on holiday. In fact, their relatives lost track of them on 2 September when they were travelling from Colombia to Venezuela – in transit between Inídira and Puerto Ayacucho – and later, already alarmed, they reported their disappearance to the Ertzaintza and to a Venezuelan digital media outlet. The Basque Police took steps and confirmed that both were detained in Venezuela, as the Department of Security itself informed the families.
Embassy of Argentina
The Chavistas accuse them of being part of a plan led by the US CIA to form a “group of mercenaries” inside Venezuela with the purpose of “causing chaos”, sowing “destabilization” and finally promoting a “coup d’état” against the Chavista regime. They are also accused of attempting a false flag attack against the Argentine Embassy in Caracas, where several opponents are seeking asylum. According to the minister, the plan consisted of throwing a grenade at the diplomatic legation and blaming the Maduro government for the attack.
Not in vain, during the height of the protests following the elections held at the end of July – and which are subject to serious irregularities and accusations of vote-rigging – Venezuelan security agents surrounded the embassy and the Executive even cut off its electricity supply in an attempt to force the departure of opposition leaders, who had taken refuge there to avoid arrest.
Cabello also pointed directly at the Spanish Minister of Defense, Margarita Robles, who on Thursday night blew up the Government’s containment strategy by calling Venezuela a “dictatorship.” A crude description that, despite not responding to the official position of La Moncloa, was responded to by the Chavistas with the recall of their ambassador in Madrid. “No wonder the Spanish Minister of Defense had a fit of rage against Venezuela at a book christening ceremony,” said Cabello, before accusing Robles, whose department the CNI depends on, of “promoting the recruitment of terrorists” to go “as mercenaries” to the Latin American country.
The Spanish Embassy in Caracas, for its part, sent a verbal note to the Maduro government requesting access to the detainees, in order to verify their identities and nationality and to find out exactly what they are accused of. The legation is trying to ensure that they receive all necessary assistance. “The Embassy will ensure at all times the protection and rights of any Spaniard detained in Venezuela,” explained diplomatic sources.
Basoa and Martínez are listed on their LinkedIn profiles as being 35 and 32 years old, respectively. The former claims to be a “senior technician in the installation, repair and maintenance of gas, heating, plumbing and air conditioning installations” with experience in Spain and Germany.
Mercenaries and religious
With these arrests, Maduro is challenging Pedro Sánchez’s government just days before the Venezuelan National Assembly debates relations with Spain. Diosdado Cabello’s long press conference, held at the headquarters of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in Caracas, turned last night into the story of a conspiracy involving not only the CNI, but also the CIA, the FBI, a Czech citizen whose mission would consist of creating mercenary groups, second-level opposition leaders arrested in the August demonstrations against electoral fraud, and even “religious groups.”
The minister said that among all those involved in the plot there are also individuals linked to the confused assassination attempt against Maduro in 2018; a drone attack during the military parade on August 4 in Caracas in which the president was unharmed. One of the devices exploded at a certain distance from the platform where he was standing and the second one did so on a nearby avenue. 34 people were arrested and 14 of them ended up charged. The United States did not rule out that it was “a pretext established by the regime itself.”
Apart from the two Bilbao natives and the Czech citizen, there are also several Venezuelans arrested and three Americans: Wilbert Josep Castañeda, “active military man” and “chief” of the alleged operation, Estrella David and Aaron Barren Logan, according to ‘El Nacional’. Cabello revealed that some arrests were made in private homes where the police, in their searches, found “groups of twelve, thirteen or fourteen weapons.”
The minister said that inmates from various prisons, who had been promised weapons and explosives to provoke riots, were actively involved in this plan. “The United States knows how to carry out destabilization operations,” he added.
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