I have a bookmark of a Quora poster living in Venezuela whose posts I check from time to time regarding the ongoing situation in Venezuela; a kind of "boots on the ground" account of events.
Thanks for the additional information, MichaelM.
I just don't understand the game Eric Prince is playing? He's lobbying "for a secret mission" to invade Venezuela and it's being paraded by all of the ABC-NBC-CBS -CNN news outlets ... so "How secret is it?" Is it some kind of hyped-up psychological scare tactic? And the guy doesn't come "cheap" .... "The sources revealed that he has asked for at least $40 million in funds plus a chunk of billions of dollars Venezuela has in frozen assets around the world."
The notorious US mercenary firm Blackwater has been reportedly lobbying with the administration of President Donald Trump as well as opposition figures of Venezuela for a secret mission to topple the Latin American country's president, Nicolas Maduro.
Report: Blackwater Planning Mission to Topple Maduro by Sending Mercenaries to Venezuela
The exclusive report by Reuters on Tuesday, citing four unnamed sources, revealed that Erik Prince, the founder of the controversial private security firm, who is also a firm Trump supporter, has offered to deploy an army to the South American country in order to oust Maduro.
According to the report, Prince has been mainly seeking investment and political support for his plan from influential Trump supporters and wealthy Venezuelan nationals who have long been living in exile.
The sources revealed that he has asked for at least $40 million in funds plus a chunk of billions of dollars Venezuela has in frozen assets around the world.
In his private meetings, which stretch from the United States to several European countries, Prince has set out a plan to recruit up to 5,000 mercenaries on behalf of Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido, who has challenged Maduro since January by proclaiming himself president.
The sources who had direct knowledge of Prince’s plan stated that it started with intelligence operations and continued by deploying to Venezuela between 4,000 and 5,000 forces from Colombia and other Latin American nations to carry out the mission.
The attempt is still ongoing as one source said Prince has held meetings as recently as mid-April.
Earlier this year, National Security Adviser John Bolton was photographed holding confidential papers included two lines of writing: “Afghanistan -> Welcome the Talks”, which referred to ongoing negotiations between Washington and the Taliban militant group, and “5,000 troops to Colombia”.
The mysterious line might provide clues into Washington’s secret plans to carry out military intervention in Venezuela, an option American official have stated is on the table along with other economic and diplomatic measures.
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Colombia Requests Emergency Lima Group Meeting over Venezuelan Crisis
Latin American Herald Tribune - Colombia Requests Emergency Lima Group Meeting over Venezuelan Crisis
Colombian Foreign Minister Carlos Holmes Trujillo has called on Tuesday for an urgent meeting of the Lima Group to discuss the situation in Venezuela.
Juan Guaido, who has been recognized as interim president by more than 50 countries, announced at dawn on Tuesday that “the military family took a step” to join him and get “the definitive cessation of the usurpation.”
A group of soldiers have sided with the acting head of state, who has said he will restore democracy in the country.
Reacting to the events on Twitter, Trujillo said: “I call on all the member countries of the Lima Group so that today we continue our task of supporting the return of democracy and freedom to Venezuela and we define by mutual agreement an emergency meeting.”
The Colombian minister added in another message that on instructions from President Ivan Duque he has sent communications to the member countries of the Lima Group to “convene an emergency meeting in order to continue supporting decisively the return of democracy and freedom to Venezuela.”
The Lima Group, of which Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Guyana and Saint Lucia are members, was created in the Peruvian capital in August 2017 with the purpose of finding a solution to the crisis in Venezuela.
However, Mexico has stayed away from the initiative since the arrival of President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.
At its last meeting, held on April 15 in Santiago, Chile, the group urged the international community to take measures to isolate Maduro’s regime, and on Monday it asked the United Nations to mobilize in response to the humanitarian crisis in Venezuela.
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Venezuela Asks Interpol to Arrest 3 for Attack on Electricity Grid
Latin American Herald Tribune - Venezuela Asks Interpol to Arrest 3 for Attack on Electricity Grid
The regime of Nicolas Maduro asked Interpol on Tuesday to capture three Venezuelan citizens it says are in the United States, Spain and Colombia, accusing them of being involved in the alleged “attack” on the country’s electricity grid on March 7, for which five people are already in custody, the Caracas regime said.
“Involved are Mr. Julio Cesar Acuña Nuñez, Interpol has already been asked about him, because do you know where he’s living now? In the United States. Mr. Ramon Oswaldo Garcia Garcia, also ... because do you know where he’s living right now? In Spain,” said Communications Minister Jorge Rodriguez.
In remarks to state-run VTV television, Rodriguez also said that the Maduro regime had asked Interpol to arrest Miguel Angel Jose Freitas, who “currently lives in Colombia” and works at “a cybersecurity company that has a direct connection with elements of the Colombian right.”
Rodriguez spoke sarcastically about the alleged fact that these three people are in the abovementioned countries, two of which – the US and Colombia – are regularly pointed to by the Maduro regime as being behind efforts to topple it.
Rodriguez said that Venezuelan authorities have arrested five people for the March 7 “attack” on the electricity grid that paralyzed the country for five days.
Among those five detainees he mentioned Otoniel Ramos Sanchez, who – he said – “was directly involved in the ... attack on the brain” of the country’s main Guri hydroelectric plant.
“He was already indicted by the Public Ministry and at this time he has been responding to questions from the Public Ministry and he’s given us a great deal of intelligence about who was involved in the process,” he said.
In addition, Rodriguez said that Venezuelan authorities are looking for Jesus Rodriguez Landoni, a hydroelectric worker, whom the Maduro regime has accused of being directly involved in the March 25 power outage.
“As relatives and associates tell us, he is in the US and lives in the home of a US Armed Forces officer ... an officer with the Air Force,” Rodriguez said.
The minister said that from March 7 through Tuesday the National Electric System (SEN) has suffered more than “45 attacks of a minor nature,” adding that in the last two years more than 50 percent of the country’s more than 500 electric substations have been “sabotaged” and have experienced fires.
Despite that, he said that experts dealing with the situation are “quite close to achieving a lasting equilibrium” in nationwide electricity service, given that since March 31 the government has been implementing a plan to ration power service.
The Maduro regime says that the US and the domestic opposition staged a cyberattack last March on the electricity grid and used a long-range sniper rifle to attack the Guri plant, knocking out power to almost the entire country.
However, experts say that the power failures were due to poor maintenance of the electric plants and a lack of investment in the system, a version that the opposition supports, adding that what happened is also a product of corruption at the state-run Electricity Corporation.
