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US and Colombian govts supported botched invasion of Venezuela: Bombshell testimony from coup-plotter

A key coup-plotter in the May 2020 botched invasion of Venezuela said she met with FBI and DEA officials. She admitted Colombia’s intelligence services were aiding them and “knew everything,” adding that President Iván Duque and far-right political kingpin Álvaro Uribe helped.
 
by Ben Norton
 
Part 3 - More details of Operation Gideon emerge
 
When the Colombian government arrested the Venezuelans who had been involved in Operation Gideon in September 2020, President Iván Duque tried to distance himself from them, claiming they were “delinquents” who were plotting “destabilization.” But Yacsy Álvarez’s testimony shows this was just PR.

Before and after the invasion went sideways, Álvarez was living in the northern Colombian city of Barranquilla. This was the same place where her associate, the former Venezuelan army general Cliver Alcalá, had defected in 2018.

Alongside Álvarez, Alcalá not only helped in the planning of Operation Gideon, but also initiated a similarly violent plot that the Venezuelan government had exposed just a few months before, in March 2020.

The Washington Post reported in July that Yacsy Álvarez had been working for the Venezuelan multimillionaire Franklin Durán, an erstwhile ally of former President Hugo Chávez who later turned on Venezuela’s leftist government.

Durán helped fund Operation Gideon, and provided logistical support for the coup-plotters. Álvarez also reportedly used Durán’s money to finance Alcalá’s activities.

The Associated Press reported in August that Álvarez had traveled to Miami to meet with the US mercenary Jordan Goudreau and two of his former Special Forces colleagues. In January, the four flew to Colombia on a plane owned by Durán.

Goudreau’s two former Green Beret colleagues, Luke Denman and Airan Berry, participated in the botched invasion of Venezuela on May 3. The men were subsequently arrested by the Venezuelan government and sentenced to 20 years in prison.

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