Diosdado Cabello, Minister of Interior and Justice, announced that a batch of weapons was seized. He asserted that a plan was being organized in the United States to attack the headquarters of the Argentine embassy in Venezuela, where opposition members are taking refuge, and to blame the administration of Nicolás Maduro for the attack.
He minister Interior and Justice Minister Diosdado Cabello said that security and intelligence officials seized a batch of more than 400 rifles. He said that the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and sectors of the Venezuelan opposition are behind the illegal entry of these and other weapons, which would be used to carry out plans to supposedly install hotbeds of violence.
On September 14, Cabello explained that the weapons entered Venezuela through irregular means, including in dog food packaging. “In the end, all of this results in threats against the country. It is an operation carried out by people who are used to it. The United States government is not alien to this operation. Behind this operation is Iván Simonovis,” he commented from the headquarters of the Ministry of Interior and Justice.
During a speech to the media, he said that the CIA is leading the operation, as is the National Intelligence Centre of Spain. According to Cabello, and based on alleged confessions of people captured for these events, “mercenaries” of French and Eastern European origin have been contacted to try to generate violence and assassinate high-ranking government officials.
“This is a network. We have a group of people arrested who are part of this network. We carried out raids and people had rifles in their homes, linked to the acts of violence they planned to generate,” he said.
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He said that two Spanish citizens, identified as José María Pasua and Andrés Martínez, were captured in Puerto Ayacucho for being alleged “mercenaries.” He added that they confessed that the Spanish National Intelligence Center is looking to recruit more “mercenaries.”
“How can we have relations with a government that aspires to overthrow another? They think we are a colony. Spain is neck-deep in the operation against Venezuela. Spain will see what it does. If it continues to interfere in Venezuela’s affairs, it will change its mind,” he said.
He added that other captured individuals confessed that part of the plan was to throw grenades and explosives at the Argentine embassy, where six Vente Venezuela leaders are sheltering. He explained that they were seeking to blame the Maduro administration for the attack on the diplomatic headquarters.
Although he did not specify how many people have been arrested in connection with the case, another of those arrested that he identified is Wilbert Joseph Castañeda, an American national.
In the Colombian municipality of Inírida, bordering Venezuela, the television station Inírida en Vivo reported on September 9 that two Spaniards had arrived in Caracas from Madrid and traveled to Puerto Cabello, then went sightseeing in that municipality and then returned to Venezuela. “They were last seen on September 2.”
The next day, on her Facebook, Inírida en Vivo said that “we can confirm that they are detained” by Venezuelan intelligence agencies, specifically the General Directorate of Military Counterintelligence (DGCIM). According to the report, the Spaniards traveled to Puerto Ayacucho in a rented car, which they did not return to. “They were seen behaving suspiciously at the airport, and they had a nervous and strange behavior for tourists.” According to the local Colombian media, the detainees were unable to respond well to an interrogation and were transferred to Caracas.
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