US Special Forces hostage Luke Denman, 34, is paraded on Venezuelan TV, admits to plot to capture Maduro and holds up coup contract, as Pompeo denies US involvement and says if he’d been ‘directly’ involved it would have ‘gone differently’
- Luke Denman, 34, was paraded on Venezuelan state TV on Wednesday
- He was arrested Monday as part of a failed coup to overthrow President Nicolas Maduro
A former U.S. special force soldier arrested in Venezuela was paraded on Venezuelan TV Wednesday as he ‘admitted to a plot to capture President Nicolas Maduro’.
Luke Denman, 34, was arrested Monday alongside six Venezuelan mercenaries as part of the foiled coup.
The plan was coordinated by an ex-Green Beret named Jordan Goudreau, 43, who says the objective was to capture Maduro. Goudreau claims to have built a force of 300 men, reportedly backed by US billionaires.
President Maduro said Wednesday that Goudreau has worked directly for several years with Donald Trump and that he has provided security services, intelligence services in contract with the White House and the Department of State.
It came after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo ridiculed the idea of official government involvement Wednesday, saying: ‘There was no U.S. government direct involvement in this operation.
‘(If) we’d have been involved, it would have gone differently.’
Asked who may have bankrolled the operation, Pompeo said: ‘We’re not prepared to share any more information about what we know took place.’
Luke Denman, 34, was arrested alongside six Venezuelan mercenaries as part of the foiled coup. He appeared on Venezuelan TV on Wednesday speaking about the coup
In the video broadcast to Venezuelan state TV, the American citizen identifies himself as Luke Alexander Denman from Austin, Texas.
He said that he entered the U.S. Army in 2006 and served for five years. He claims to have met Goudreau for the first time in Germany in 2009 or 2010.
Goudreau has previously said that Denman served in Iraq and Afghanistan with him.
Denman adds that he was first approached by Goudreau about the plot in early December but was given very few details.
He flew into Columbia on January 16 with Goudreau and Airan Berry, 41, who was also arrested Monday. The former soldier said in the video that the plan was to meet with Venezuelans and train them in Colombia.
While Goudreau has claimed a force of 300 was assembled, Denman says it was much smaller: ‘There was three small groups. In total it was 60 to 70 people per group.’
After training, the Americans would then travel to Venezuela, he claimed, where they would work to secure Caracas and an airport. He said he expected between $50,000 and $100,000 for the job.
‘The only instructions I received from Jordan were that I should make sure to take control of the airport so that we could safely transfer Maduro to the plane,’ he added.
‘Take Maduro back to the United States’.
President Maduro on Tuesday called the arrested men ‘terrorist mercenaries’ and blamed the attacks on the Trump administration, Venezuela’s opposition leader Juan Guaidó and neighboring Colombia, all of which have denied involvement. The U.S. has backed Guaidó as the country’s leader.
He repeated his attacks on Wednesday, claiming that Goudreau was linked to President Trump, claiming the ex-Green Beret provided Donald Trump with bodyguard and protection service on many occasions.
‘They will be judged with all of their rights. These Americans have found another Venezuela they didn’t expect,’ he said.
‘I would ask if a group of Venezuelans prepared an incursion against the United States in a city, in Miami, in New York, in Washington, and they were downright captured, what would happen to those Venezuelans? What punishment would they received? Would they capture them alive? Would they forgive them?’
This is a breaking story and will be updated.