Briefing

The "Invasion" of Macuto Bay

With this unbelievable story, they tried to distract us from the crisis, the pandemic and the horrible events of Guanare and Petare. Of course, they also tried to frame the opposition

Naky Soto

Photo: BBC

  • Sunday began with a statement by Interior minister, Néstor Reverol, saying that they had stopped an invasion attempt by a “group of mercenaries coming from Colombia (…) Some of them were shot and others were captured,” he said and they seized assault weapons. They allegedly got to Vargas in high-speed boats, despite the fact that Venezuela and Colombia share a land border of 2,150 kms and some more kms. of sea borders. Reverol said that “they came to the country to commit terrorist acts, assassinate revolutionary leaders, worsen the violence spiral, generate chaos and confusion among the population and with it, a new coup attempt.” Without an investigation, he spoke about this thesis: “It looks like the frustrated imperial plans to overthrow the government (…) have pushed them to come up with irrational actions.” 
  • Diosdado Cabello revealed the first figures of the invasion: eight deaths and two detained, he said before he blamed Donald Trump, Iván Duque and the DEA, of orchestrating a coup d’état. He mentioned the captain of the Army, Robert Colina (AKA Pantera), and assured he was working for Clíver Alcalá Cordones. He added that one of the people detained is a DEA agent. Later, defense minister Vladimir Padrino López popped up and announced a new phase of the Bolivarian Shield 2020 military exercises, and condemning the Macuto invasion, he read a communiqué in the name of the Armed Forces and reiterated that the operation was ordered by the U.S. and planned in Colombia. 
  • ANC-imposed attorney general Tarek William Saab reported the appointment of prosecutors 73 and 74 with full authority to investigate the events of Macuto. On Sunday night, Delcy Rodríguez said that they had found evidence which would be shown to the country in the next few hours. He reiterated that the U.S. and Colombian governments are involved. Delcy talked to the ambassador of the Netherlands, to warn him, because Aruba “could have been used for logistical support and supplying these mercenary groups.” 
  • The authorities haven’t identified the eight people who were killed or detained. 
  • The appalling institutional silence following a massacre of the magnitude like the one at Cepella prison in Portuguesa (a mutiny that ended with almost 50 dead prisoners) and five days of rival gang war of the José Félix Ribas slum in Petare, was broken by a threat to power. An alleged invasion happened and all of chavismo speaks. The information they provided the public with on Sunday morning, told big tales, an absurd narrative, that was enough to kidnap the public opinion in a simple game: choose your favorite weak spot and comment on it. Any invasion would require more than ten people, any conspirator would have opted for a less surveilled point than Macuto, the engines of the high-speed boats (their GPS proved that they came from Colombia, according to Diosdado) must be truly efficient, in order to sail for such a long distance without replenishing fuel, the “recovered arsenal” was mocked, because we saw tortillas, a dentist bill from 2014, IDs and passports, credit cards, photos, sunscreen and, of course, the American flag. 
  • This case does have a precedent. News agency AP revealed the story of a plan more meant for suicide than magnicide, allegedly failing in March, explaining why Clíver Alcalá, Chávez’s former ally living in Colombia, turned himself in to the DEA. 
  • This plan in particular would have meant 300 armed men entering Venezuela through the Colombian border, attacking military bases and calling for a popular rebellion that would topple Nicolás. The people responsible for this suicide mission were American Jordan Goudreau and Clíver Alcalá Cordones, both ex-military, pathological liars, braggy and corrupt. 
  • Three important facts: AP couldn’t find evidence of the U.S. government being involved in the plan. From the beginning, the plan divided the opposition—because they didn’t trust Clíver Alcalá and it didn’t make sense to operate behind the backs of the Colombian and American governments—and broke contact with Goudreau because it was a suicide mission. And the most important fact, Diosdado Cabello assured that chavismo had been infiltrated in the conspiracy for months, he said that they knew everything, and to prove it he said that they even paid for some of the meetings. If this is true, it makes a lot of sense that Jorge Rodríguez knew so many details of the plan as soon as they seized the weapons. The article mentions that the opposition cut ties with Goudreau, because his plan was too dangerous. On Sunday, then, there were two events involving Jordan Goudreau: a video of Goudreau and Javier Nieto Quintero made the rounds on Twitter, where he says he’s the author of the Macuto invasion and asking the Armed Forces to join operation Gedeón, and then he gave Patricia Poleo an interview to discuss the alleged contract, signed by him, Juan Guaidó, JJ Rendón and Sergio Vergara to overthrow Nicolás. 
  • Jordan Goudreau decided to reveal the contract and be interviewed to explain why he did it. Unfortunately, he didn’t explain why a coup needs a contract, why Guaidó would sign it and why he believed the Venezuelan opposition had the financial resources for it. Goudreau mentioned he broke the confidentiality clause because they haven’t paid him a single penny. The entire statement makes no sense, but he said he has audio and video of the transaction. He also said that the Colombian government wasn’t aware of the operation. It’s relevant to mention chavismo’s alliance with Patricia Poleo’s work, several state accounts retweeted her message, including VTV and it was broadcast on Globovisión. 
  • “Of course there are patriots in the military who are willing to fight for Venezuela, but it’s evident that what happened in Vargas is a new scheme by the dictatorship. While they ignore the massacre in Guanare and the shooting in Petare, Macuto happens. They want to confuse the population and plant evidence,” said Juan Guaidó in a tweet publishing the statement of the caretaker presidency on this weekend’s events. Guaidó added: “They can lie, but they can’t hide the reality: Maduro doesn’t have the control of the country, and while he’s still usurping Miraflores, there will only be more cases.” The National Emergency Government is urgent, to stabilize Venezuela and come out of this mess.” They emphasized that this is a failed state that promotes a policy of general violence and protects irregular groups to increase social control and repression, and that the regime wants to divert attention with a staged or manipulated event, full of doubt, contradictions and incongruencies.
  • On Sunday, 12 new cases of COVID-19 were confirmed in Venezuela, for a total of 357. Delcy Rodríguez said that three new cases came from Nueva Esparta, three in Aragua, two in Zulia and one case in Falcón, Vargas, Miranda and Anzoátegui. She said that they had done 482,953 tests. 
  • There are over 3.5 million cases in the world, 247,431 deaths and over a million recovered patients, according to Johns Hopkins University. America is at a crucial point of the pandemic. The U.S. remains the epicenter, over one million cases and over 66,000 deaths. In Latin America, the figures keep getting higher: 250,000 confirmed cases and over 13,000 deaths. WHO deputy director, Jarbas Barbosa explained that this region is like Europe “six weeks ago”, that’s why we can expect “an increase of cases in the next few weeks.” Brazil is the Latin American epicenter, with 7,025 deaths and 101,147 cases. Peru has had 45,928 cases and 1,286 deaths and Colombia 7,668 cases and 340 deaths.
Briefing

Naky Soto

Naky gets called Naibet at home and at the bank. She coordinates training programs for an NGO. She collects moments and turns them into words. She has more stories than freckles.

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