This is what happens when guys like who bring expensive rifles to anti-distancing MAGA rallies have to actually use their guns, even when it is against rather resource poor opponent.
Those are great Americans being unfairly treated. Some people say it was the do nothing Democrats with their socialist communist partners down there in the very sick and broke and sad Venezuela who created this phony witch hunt to frame these great great patriots. Oh and Ive never met them before and I’ve never heard of them. “Sir there are pictures and video of you with them having dinner at your hotel a week ago...” Look you are fake news and that’s a nasty question. I take LOTS of pictures okay...
LOL. They had terrible equipment. I'm guessing these dudes were desperate for money and the mercenary contracts suck right now. Worst raid ever when you don't even make it out of the boat before surrendering.
Aljazeera's version: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/05/venezuela-failed-coup-plot-200506073924677.html Fox News' version: https://www.foxnews.com/world/behind-the-rogue-and-botched-attack-to-kidnap-venezuelas-maduro Strange that this Goudreau guy would be so public about his involvement and intentions, in either news version of the story. Unfortunate any Americans are involved in this story at all. Could be a dumb adventure. Could be Maduro operatives. Maybe both. Who knows. Anyway, gives me an opportunity to say what I've been thinking awhile about the case of Venezuela. The Guaido challenge has expired; give it up. I mean, Guaido should do whatever he needs to do, but the US should drop its involvement, drop the sanctions, and stop trying to topple the Maduro government, which is apparently more resilient than we hoped. For a little while, it looked like Maduro's position was so precarious we could just breathe on it and it would topple. Apparently that was not the case. Now, any regime change would be chaos and many people would be hurt, and in the meantime our sanctions are just causing more suffering without advancing any of our goals. Just unilaterally de-escalate. I know Maduro is a bad person and he runs a bad government. Doesn't mean we should make it worse.
Some or all of the guys arrested. Or they could be working for Guaido. Or they could be freelancers hoping to collect the US bounty (which should be withdrawn). Hard to think which is the more incredible scenario.
The plot thickens... _______ Reacting to Trump's denial, Venezuela's Information Minister Trader_Jorge Rodriguez showed a photograph of Goudreau next to Trump.
Yep, and admitted the involvement of an expat Venezuelan Army officer in Florida (Nieto I think is his name). Not sure we'll ever get the full story here.
An American in Colombia. I just think it's weird that he'd be so quick to volunteer this information that he was trying to kidnap the president (legitimate or otherwise) of a sovereign nation with a bunch of armed mercenaries, but that it ended up a farcical disaster. Oh and my client stiffed me but I went ahead and did the job anyway. I'd probably try to keep quiet about it because it's a clandestine operation. And if not for that reason, just because of all the damage it does to his company's brand that his operation was a total flop that resulted in abject failure, the deaths of multiple operatives, and the arrest of many others. I think if I were him, I'd hide; and if they found me deny, deny, deny. Anyway, I don't know what happened. Nothing good. But, I'm not inclined to swallow everything this guy says hook, line, and sinker just because he's an American. Any American that would hire a bunch of mercs to kidnap a nation's president by force without US authorization and then brag about it even though it was an utter failure is not a trustworthy person. I'd even take a step beyond that and say any American running an international mercenary corporation isn't a trustworthy person.
Authorities in Venezuela identified the two detained men as Luke Denman and Airan Berry, both former US special forces soldiers associated with the Florida-based private security firm Silvercorp USA. A third US ex-Green Beret and Silvercorp founder, Jordan Goudreau, claimed responsibility for leading "Operation Gideon", which was launched with an attempted beach landing before dawn on Sunday that left eight suspected attackers dead. I highly doubt Jordan Goudreau is "a Maduro operative" he boasted about it because he actually thought they can pull it off and who's to say he didn't have US authorization?
No it's NOT... It's Soldier for hire... Mercenaries are used a lot by our own government and were used in the First Gulf War... They were the first to go in... T_Man
Oh look, Venezuela can provide PPE to captured mercenaries and Trump can't even do that for U.S. doctors and nurses. What an embarassment.
