2 American Lives Hang in the Balance After Being Captured

Two captured Americans are being held prisoner in South America for “playing Rambo.” Their lives hang in the balance of diplomatic negotiations after Venezuela accused the United States of staging an invasion. The most surprising thing is that the men really were planning an invasion. Whether they were sanctioned to be there is a totally separate question.

Captured American’s were ex-special forces

Venezuela’s disputed leader Nicolás Maduro accused the Trump administration on Monday of plotting to invade the socialist country. Caracas is holding 13 captured “terrorists,” including two Americans. As proof, Maduro displayed the American passports on state television and “read off the names and birthdays.” They might have been Americans, and they might have planned to overthrow the country, but that does not mean that the Trump Administration was aware of anything.

Luke Denman and Airan Berry were trying to be heroes, Maduro asserts, “they were playing Rambo.” Both men are former soldiers trained by the U.S. special forces. A video has been released allegedly showing, “Venezuelan authorities with their captives lined up at a seaside marina.”

Maduro is hopping mad and accuses the U.S. of being “fully and completely involved in this defeated raid,” Associated Press is reporting. He’s convinced that everyone in the captured unit are “professional American mercenaries.”

No involvement with ‘Operation Gideon’

The State Department is laying low for now, and not talking to reporters, but Washington Post is claiming that leaks from U.S. officials, confirmed by Juan Guaidó, head of Venezuela’s rebellion, “denied any involvement with the action.” Britain’s The Guardian added to the story that “Guaidó’s team denied any connection” to Jordan Goudreau.” That means that Guaidó’s “official” position is that he had nothing to do with it.

Goudreau is a totally different story. “Operation Gideon” was his baby, he admits. The Florida-based ex-Green Beret went on record earlier to admit that “his mission intended to detain Maduro and ‘liberate’ Venezuela.” He claimed full responsibility for the operation which resulted in the Americans being captured.

Goudreau admits he “was working with a retired Venezuelan army general facing U.S. narcotics charges along with other defectors.” He had been able to put together a “makeshift army of about 60.” The only problem was, they “lacked U.S. support.” Goudreau was happy to have some special forces backup. He was working with the two captured men because they had “served in Iraq and Afghanistan with him in the U.S. military.”

No US Embassy in Venezuela

Goudreau immediately screamed for the State Department, telling the Post that he has “been in touch with a lawyer in Venezuela” and also “reaching out to the State Department.” He wants Uncle Sam “to retrieve the captured men.” After all, “They are Americans,” he insists. “They are ex-Green Berets. Come on.”

Adding to the tension south of the equator, last year, the United States broke off diplomatic ties with the socialist government, so, right now, “there is no U.S. embassy in Caracas.”

Luke Denman’s mother told reporters she hasn’t heard from him for a few weeks, “when he texted her from an undisclosed location to ask how she was coping with the coronavirus pandemic.” He never once mentioned Venezuela. She heard that he had been captured when his friends called. They had seen the social media posts. “The first time I heard Jordan Goudreau’s name was today,” she asserts.