‘The United States government is fully and completely involved in this defeated raid,’ Maduro said, praising members of a fishing village for cornering one group in the sweep netting the ‘professional American mercenaries.’
The United States has led a campaign to oust Maduro, increasing pressure in recent weeks by indicting the socialist leader as a narco-trafficker and offering a $15 million reward for his arrest.
Speaking about the two U.S. citizens that have been captured, he said: ‘They were playing Rambo. They were playing hero,’ adding that Venezuelan authorities had caught wind of the plot before its execution.

Maduro ally and Attorney General Tarek William Saab said that in total they’ve arrested 114 people suspected in the attempted attack and they are on the hunt of 92 others.
According to his social media accounts, Airan Berry served as a Sergeant First Class in the U.S. military from 1996 and 2013. He is listed as having attended school in Texas. President Maduro went further to accuse Florida-based ex-Green Beret Goudreau of leading the incursion ‘with terrorist mercenaries trained in Colombia to assault Venezuela and try to kill me’, during Monday’s press conference.
Maduro’s allegations appeared to mirror earlier statements made by Goudreau  on Monday that he was working with the two men in a mission intended to detain Maduro and ‘liberate’ Venezuela.
It has been reported that Goudreau is a former associate of Keith Schiller, Donald Trump’s bodyguard.
Schiller accompanied Goudreau to a meeting last May to discuss security with representatives of Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó.
Schiller however, claims he cut contact with Goudreau.

Kraft allegedly lured prospective donors with the promise of preferential access to negotiate deals in the energy and mining sectors with an eventual Guaidó government, one of the businessmen told AP.
The source provided a two-page, unsigned draft memorandum for a six-figure commitment he said was sent by Kraft in October in which he represents himself as the ‘prime contractor’ of Venezuela.
Before dawn on Sunday, officials say the first attack started on a beach near Venezuela’s port city of La Guaira, when security forces made the first two arrests and killed eight others attempting to make a landing by speedboats.

Despite a U.S.-led campaign to oust him, Maduro still controls all levers of power. In the most recent incident, the US Justice Department indicted Maduro as a drug trafficker and offered a $15 million reward for his arrest.
Sunday’s raid came after an AP report on Friday that revealed how Goudreau was planning a coup by training 300 soldiers in Colombia.
Ephraim Mattos, a former US Navy SEAL who trained some of the would-be liberation army in tactical medicine, warned it was doomed to failure.
‘You’re not going to take out Maduro with 300 hungry, untrained men,’ he said.
Venezuela has been in a deepening political and economic crisis under Maduro’s rule. Crumbling public services such as running water, electricity and medical care have driven nearly 5 million to migrate.

A seemingly bemused Goudreau’ stated ‘I’ve tried to engage everybody I know at every level,’ Goudreau said of the attempt to help his detained colleagues.
‘Nobody’s returning my calls. It’s a nightmare.’
Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó on Monday denied having anything to do with Goudreau
Guaidó said in a statement that he has ‘no relationship nor responsibility for any actions’ taken by Goudreau.
However, in his account of the adventure, which at times seemed contradictory Goudreau  says he was plotting a rebellion for months while claiming not to have received a single penny.
But, he repeatedly mentions that Guaidó had a contract with Silvercorp USA, the war veteran’s Florida-based security company, though he said he was paid only a tiny share of the amount agreed upon.

Goudreau has said he reached an agreement with the U.S.-backed Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó to overthrow Maduro, which Guaidó has denied. The opposition leader said he had nothing to do with Sunday’s raid.
Goudreau says Guaidó never fulfilled the agreement, but the former Green Beret pushed ahead with an underfunded operation with just 60 fighters, including the two U.S. veterans.
He said he last communicated with Denman and Berry when they were adrift in a boat ‘hugging’ the Caribbean coast of Venezuela. They were still in their boat following an initial confrontation with the Venezuelan Navy early Sunday, he said.
‘They were running dangerously low on fuel,’ Goudreau said. ‘If they had gone onto landfall, they would have gone to a safe house.’
Goudreau said the two were waiting for a boat on the Caribbean island of Aruba with emergency fuel to help extract them.

Opposition leader Juan Guaido said the government was seeking to distract from recent violent events including a deadly prison riot on Friday and bloody Caracas gang battle on Saturday night.
‘The regime is seeking to divert attention with a supposed incident in La Guaira plagued with inconsistencies, doubts and contradictions,’ Guaidó’s press team said in a statement.
Venezuela has been in a deepening political and economic crisis in recent years under Maduro’s rule. Crumbling public services such as running water, electricity and medical care has driven nearly 5 million to migrate.

Inside sources claim planning for the attack began after an April 30, 2019 barracks revolt by a cadre of soldiers who swore loyalty to Maduro’s would-be replacement, and the opposition leader, Juan Guaidó, [photo] – recognized by the US and 60 other nations as Venezuela’s rightful leader

The United States has led a campaign to oust Maduro, increasing pressure in recent weeks by indicting the socialist leader as a narco-trafficker and offering a $15 million reward for his arrest.
The U.S. also has increased stiff sanctions, cutting off Venezuela’s oil sector to choke Maduro from a key source of hard cash.
Iván Simonovis, a former high-ranking Venezuelan police official who now advises opposition leaders on intelligence strategy from Washington, speculated on Twitter that there might have been a clash between security forces on Sunday and suggested Maduro’s government created the story of a plot to justify ‘repression against the interim government and any Venezuelan who opposes the dictatorship.’
But in addition to U.S. economic and diplomatic pressure, Maduro’s government has faced several small-scale military threats, including an attempt to assassinate Maduro with a drone and Guaidó’s call for a military uprising, which was joined by few soldiers.

Maduro has overseen a six-year economic crisis that has left many citizens unable to obtain basic food and medicine and forced nearly five million people to emigrate.
The United States and dozens of other countries disavowed Maduro after his disputed 2018 election, which they say was rigged.
They instead recognize Guaidó, who is head of the country’s legislature. Still, Maduro retains the backing of the country’s armed forces as well as countries including China and Russia, which have harshly criticized the U.S. sanctions.