THREE Americans have been arrested on suspicion of plotting to kill Venezuelan dictator Maduro – claims rubbished by US officials.
Two Spanish citizens and a Czech national have also been detained as Venezuelan officials accused them of trying to assassinate President Nicolas Maduro.
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The country’s most powerful government minister, Diosdado Cabello, said on a state TV broadcast that they were part of a CIA-led plot to overthrow the government.
Cabello accused them of planning to kill several high-ranking officials and showed images of the rifles he said were confiscated from some of the six.
He claimed Navy seal Wilbert Joseph Castañeda Gomez – who previously served in Colombia, Afghanistan and Iraq – was among them.
The State Department slammed the claims on Saturday and said any accusations of “US involvement in a plot to overthrow Maduro are categorically false”.
It did confirm that a member of the American military had been detained.
Officials also said they are aware of “unconfirmed reports of two additional US citizens detained in Venezuela”.
Their statement said: “The United States continues to support a democratic solution to the political crisis in Venezuela.”
Tensions are high between Venezuela, Spain and America after the country’s disputed July 28 presidential election which Maduro has been accused of stealing.
“We know that the United States government has links to this operation,” Cabello said during his address.
He added that “more than 400 rifles were seized” and accused the detainees of plotting “terrorist acts.”
Cabello reportedly showed images of the rifles during his TV address, ABC reports.
He claimed that the Americans and Czech citizen linked the alleged plot to intelligence agencies in the US and Spain as well as to Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado.
He said the two Spaniards were recently detained in Puerto Ayacucho in the southwest.
Maduro has in the past heaped blame for the criticism his country faces on the “imperialist” United States, which he accuses of conspiring with his Venezuelan opponents to overthrow him.
Cabello, meanwhile, said that those detained had “contacted French mercenaries, they contacted mercenaries from Eastern Europe and they are in an operation to try to attack our country.”
Spain and the Czech Republic have yet to react to the sensational claims, which come amid a deepening standoff between Maduro and Western powers.
Dictator Maduro succeeded leader Hugo Chavez after his death in 2013.
He insists he won a third term in this year’s July elections but has failed to release detailed voting tallies to back up his claim.
Tensions between Caracas and Spain then skyrocketed after Venezuelan opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez, 75, was forced to go into exile in Spain a week ago after being threatened with arrest.
Maduro’s dubious election triumph was contested by González, whose team said their polling data showed the latter won by a landslide.
The US also recognised him as the real winner of the election, as did Spain.
Earlier this week Caracas recalled its ambassador to Madrid for a summit and summoned Spain’s envoy to Venezuela for talks after a Spanish minister accused Maduro of running a “dictatorship.”
Venezuela was also angered by Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s decision to meet with Gonzalez and warned Spain against any “interference”.
Maduro’s claim to have won the election sparked mass country-wide protests, which claimed at least 27 lives and left 192 people wounded.
About 2,400 people, including teens, were arrested.
Maduro’s riot police used tear gas and blasted people with rubber bullets to quell the unrest.
After Venezuela’s last election, in 2018, Maduro also claimed victory amid widespread accusations of fraud.
With the support of the military and other institutions, he managed to cling to power despite international sanctions.
Maduro’s reign since 2013 has seen GDP drop 80 per cent in a decade, prompting more than seven million of the country’s 30 million citizens to emigrate.
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