A former U.S. special force soldier arrested in Venezuela was paraded on Venezuelan TV today as he ‘admitted to a plot to capture President Nicolas Maduro’.
Luke Denman, 34, was arrested Monday alongside fellow American Airan Berry, 41, and six Venezuelan mercenaries as part of the foiled coup that he said was commanded by President Trump through an ex-Green Beret named Jordan Goudreau, 43.
‘The only instructions I received from Jordan were that I should make sure to take control of the airport for safe passage transfer of Maduro and receiving airplanes,’ Denman said.
‘Take Maduro back to the United States’.
In the broadcast, Denman also holds up a document that he says is the contract with Goudreau’s company Silvercorp outlining his job for the mission.
He states that it is signed by Goudreau, Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó, as well as his advisor Juan Rendón.
It came after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo ridiculed the idea of official government involvement today, 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.’
In the video broadcast to Venezuelan state TV, the American citizen identifies himself as Luke Alexander Denman from Austin, Texas.
‘It would properly mean World War,’ he said of the scenario pitched by the interviewer in which Venezuelans would attempt an attack of the United States in the same way.
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 said that he was first approached by Goudreau about the plot in early December but was given very few details.
‘I believed that it was helping their cause,’ said of his involvement. ‘I was helping Venezuelans take back control of their country.’
He says in the video clip that he flew into Columbia on January 16 with Goudreau and Airan Berry, 41, who was also arrested Monday.
The former soldier added that the plan was to meet with Venezuelans and train them in Colombia.
He describes being driven from the airport to Riohacha by a woman named Alex and that they stayed in safehouses there where they were visited by a man in a wheelchair that Denman says looked like he had ‘some influence’.
The former soldier adds that they were welcomed by a person named Jackal and that his job involved devlivering training to the Venezuelans on planning, mission planning and tactical work inside buildings.
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 so 20 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.
Denman claimed to have no information on any other training camps and he said that just he and Berry had been contracted by Goudreau’s company Silvercorp.
He says that he and Berry were the only two Americans he knew to be contracted in the mission.
Denman was asked to outline the leadership in the mission through a series of questions about who had commanded the coup and who had supplied equipment.
When questioned about why the Trump administration may wanted to attack Venezuela ‘if we don’t represent a threat for your country’, Denman answered ‘I don’t know’.
At the end of the edited video, Denman presents a document which he says is a contract detailing his ‘mercenary work’ with Silvercorp that is signed by Guaidó, Goudreau and Rendón.
Earlier in the recorded clip he said that he had first seen the document just over a month before.
Maduro also presented the alleged contract as the press conference continued.
The document describes a $212.9 million fee for the mission.
Goudreau, 43, has claimed responsibility for the attack but the U.S. government has denied all involvement.
Goudreau claims to have built a force of 300 men, reportedly backed by US billionaires, to carry out the mission to capture Maduro and bring him to the United States.
Maduro compared the failed attempt at his capture to the Bay of Pigs, the infamous 1961 failed landing of Cuban exiles who opposed Fidel Castro that was supported by the United States.
Maduro today claimed that Goudreau was linked to President Trump, claiming the ex-Green Beret provided Trump with bodyguard and protection service on many occasions, which he had.
‘I believe that the facts speak for themselves. Top tier testimonials have emerged that speak to the involvement of this ex-Green Beret, Jordan Goudreau, president and owner of Florida-based security firm Silver Corp,’ Maduro said.
‘Jordan Goudreau was the one who contacted the State Department of the United States of North America to be the head of security for the show that they staged on the Cucutá border on February 22, 2019 with a famous billionaire Richard Branson, a multimillionaire [whose business has been] broken by the coronavirus.’
The ‘Live Aid for Venezuela’ concert was reported by Associated Press as the event that spurred Goudreau to form a plot to overthrown Maduro.
Maduro added further accusations about the coup, asking what the consequences would be if roles were reversed.
‘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?’
He later added that Venezuela would approach the United Nations and the International court about the attempted attack.
‘We are going to the International Criminal Court,’ Maduro said.