Venezuela claims that an FBI agent is among a group of seven “mercenaries” arrested by police last Tuesday in Caracas in an alleged coup plot against President Nicolás Maduro. On the eve of Maduro’s disputed presidential inauguration, tensions are escalating on both sides of the political divide.
FBI agent arrested in Venezuela in alleged coup plot against Maduro
Venezuelan authorities say they have detained an FBI member in what they allege is a new coup attempt against the Chavista president. In a televised announcement, Diosdado Cabello, the Minister of Interior and Justice and regime’s second-in-command, claimed that a coup had once again been planned against the government.
According to Cabello, the opposition plans to have Edmundo González Urrutia, the contested winner of the July 28 elections, take the presidential oath of office at a foreign embassy in Caracas.
Cabello said that the plan was orchestrated by Enrique Márquez, a former high-ranking official from Venezuela’s electoral authority, and a 2024 presidential candidate. Márquez was arrested earlier this week by Maduro’s regime along with seven foreign “mercenaries” -reportedly two Americans, two Colombians, and three Ukrainians – for allegedly planning a coup against the government.
“Enrique Márquez is part of the coup d’état they wanted to carry out in Venezuela,” Cabello said. “He is connected to the gringo from the FBI and to the son-in-law of the ‘filthy one,'” he continued, in a thinly veiled jab at González Urrutia.
“The goal of the far right is to manipulate global opinion into believing that Venezuela’s regime is harming its people. But we are not like that; they are,” Cabello continued.
“There are those who believe Venezuela will achieve nothing through elections and instead seek to bring violence. On January 10, the president chosen by the people, Nicolás Maduro Moros, will be sworn in,” he added.
Maduro asserted yesterday that “an aggression by foreign mercenaries financed by the outgoing U.S. government” was underway. He claimed that his government had “already detained over 150 foreign mercenaries – Americans, Ukrainians, and others.”
Maduro, the opposition and the coups
In September 2024, three American citizens, two Spaniards, and one Czech national were arrested in Venezuela for allegedly participating in a CIA plot to assassinate Maduro. Among those detained was Wilbert Joseph Castañeda Gomez, alleged leader of the operation and a former Navy SEAL who has reportedly served in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Colombia.
The rhetoric of coups and conspiracies is a recurring theme in Maduro’s communication strategy, which aims to unite his supporters and appeal to patriotic Venezuelans by invoking the specter of a foreign threat to the country.
Beset by electoral scandals and human rights violations, Maduro has faced numerous actual coup and assassination attempts since taking office.
After his first contested reelection in May 2018, Maduro faced a coup attempt by police officers and military personnel in April 2019. However, the most notorious attempt remains Operation Gideon, an armed landing and infiltration mission involving dozens of men aimed at killing the president. Led by former Green Beret Jordan Goudreau, the operation was a resounding failure, as it was infiltrated by Venezuelan intelligence services.
Faced with a regime unwilling to relinquish power, the Venezuelan opposition has spent years attempting to rally the military to its cause to overthrow the authoritarian Chavista government. Despite occasional defections by individual officers, the majority of the military remains loyal to Maduro. High-ranking generals are deeply embedded in the regime and have little incentive to abandon their positions, which some claim they exploit to participate in drug trafficking.
Above all, it is Venezuela’s intelligence services that have allowed Maduro’s regime to endure for so long. Through highly sophisticated methods that combine effective information gathering and infiltration of coup-plotting circles, the military intelligence units and the formidable Bolivarian National Intelligence Service (SEBIN) serve as the regime’s “guardian angels.”