By EFE
Sep 15, 2024, 1:38 PM EDT
The Interior Minister of Nicolás Maduro’s regime, Diosdado Cabello, said this Saturday that Spain “was going to supply mercenaries” for an alleged operation -directed by the United States- against Venezuela, for which two citizens of the European nation are detained, which had the objective of carrying out “terrorist” acts, including assassinating the leader of Chavismo.
“The United States is leading this operation, Spain is, to say, the one that was going to supply the foreign mercenaries to carry out this operation,” he said in an interview with the multi-state channel Telesur.
According to the official, the Spanish National Intelligence Centre (CNI) was going to place “mercenaries of French origin” in the alleged operation, whose “mission was to take over” the Maiquetía International Airport, which serves Caracas.
However, sources from the Spanish government have assured EFE that the two detainees – identified as Andrés Martínez Adasme and José María Basoa Valdovinos – are not from the CNI, as the Venezuelan Interior Minister has assured, although for the moment they have not been able to provide further details about the arrests.
For Cabello, it was “predictable” that the Spanish Government would deny these alleged “links” between the two subjects, who – he said – have admitted “being part of the Spanish intelligence agencies, in this case the CNI.”
“Spain is going to say no, it is logical (…) those people are confessing their active participation,” Cabello reiterated.
He said that the two men have “connections” with “political groups in Venezuela,” with “criminal gangs” and with the American military officer Wilber Josep Castañeda – arrested on September 1 in the Caribbean country – whom the minister pointed out as “the head” of the operation.
He added that behind the operation “is Mrs. María Corina Machado,” the main supporter of the former presidential candidate of the majority opposition, Edmundo González Urrutia, who has been exiled since September 8 in Spain, where he requested asylum because he considered that he was suffering political and judicial persecution in the Caribbean country.
However, Martínez’s father, one of those arrested, also stated in statements to the Spanish newspaper El Mundo that his son and the other arrested man, both from Bilbao, were on holiday and were not members of Spain’s intelligence services, the CNI.
He explained that, since the beginning of the month, contact with them had been lost, so alerts were published on social networks to sound the alarm.
Continue reading:
- Venezuelan opposition calls for global protests two months before presidential elections
- US warns Maduro of further action against Venezuela if he does not publish the minutes
- Venezuela: Machado thanks Italian Bruno Leoni award for his “fight for freedom”