Fallout of the attempted coup in Venezuela

In a challenge to denials of government involvement, the ex-U.S. special operations sergeant whose security firm took part in a botched Venezuelan coup last May said two Trump administration officials met with and expressed support to planners of Operation Gideon, a Bay of Pigs-type operation that tried to oust Venezuelan strongman Nicolás Maduro.

It’s a story of bungling, bravado and cloak-and-dagger plotting, with plans shared in clandestine meetings in the back of limousines while rolling through Miami, in restaurants and even at dusk on the 12th fairway of the Red Course of Trump Doral, the Miami Herald/McClatchy has learned.

  Miami Herald

Culminating in abject failure.

The allegations reported exclusively in this story are also contained in a $1.4 million breach-of-contract lawsuit filed Friday, Oct. 30, by Miami attorney Gustavo J. Garcia-Montes in Miami-Dade Circuit Court.

The suit is against Juan Jose Rendon, a political consultant closely aligned with Venezuelan legislator Juan Guaidó, who the Trump administration in January 2019 began calling the legitimate president of the oil-rich South American nation.

It was brought on behalf of retired Sgt. 1st Class Jordan Goudreau, who in roughly seven hours of detailed interviews insisted he had encouragement from the administration and even held meetings to plan the operation at the Trump Hotel in the nation’s capital and at the Trump Doral west of Miami.

Didn't get paid, eh?

The goal [...] was to replace Maduro by installing Guaidó, whose name appears on a contract purportedly signed with the coup plotters. The complete document — obtained by reporters from the Miami Herald and McClatchy, its parent company — contains a never-before-seen clause that allows Guaidó to disavow any involvement if the mission failed.

[...]

An addendum to the contract said Silvercorp “will advise and assist … in planning and executing an operation to capture/detain/remove Nicolás Maduro (heretoafter, “Primary Objective”), remove the current regime, and install the recognized Venezuelan President Juan Guaidó.”

[...]

The failed coup resulted in the May 3 capture of two former American soldiers and 47 Venezuelans and led to the death of six would-be freedom-fighters who appear to have been executed.

[...]

Goudreau’s assertions are strongly denied by the people he identifies, although few were willing to do so on the record.

They alternately called him a rogue operative facing possible federal indictment, a soldier disparaging the Venezuelan opposition in hopes of getting his two men freed or a con man seeking a Netflix deal.

[...]

Inconsistencies abound on all sides of this tale.

Imagine that.

A deal was cut to provide humanitarian aid through this border, or to launch an insurrection. Or, perhaps both.

Saying little in the months that followed the failed operation, Goudreau said he came to feel abandoned and scapegoated. He decided to break his silence and name the people he said had knowledge of his efforts to overthrow the Maduro regime.

He also said in his lawsuit he had seen a competing offer of assistance to the Guaidó administration purportedly from Erik Prince, brother of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and owner of the security firm Frontier Services Group. This is denied by Prince.

[...]

Goudreau’s lawsuit identified two Trump administration officials he said had prior knowledge of his plans. They are Andrew “Drew” Horn, at the time an aide to Vice President Mike Pence, and Jason Beardsley, a former soldier who is an advisor at the Department of Veterans Affairs.

[...]

A spokesperson for Pence said the vice president does not know Horn, although Horn’s LinkedIn page identifies him as a former associate director of policy for Pence and now an advisor to the Director of National Intelligence.

“Vice President Pence had absolutely no knowledge of the rogue plot in Venezuela and does not know Mr. Horn,” said the spokesperson, Devin O’Malley.

Never met the man. Maybe there are pictures; he might have been a coffee boy.

“Drew Horn was a Department of Energy employee who was detailed to the vice president’s office as a detailee on the domestic policy team,” one senior administration official told McClatchy. “He was not assigned any responsibilities in the national security portfolio, and he was not assigned any issues related to Venezuela.”

Perfect for the job then.

The effort was codenamed Operation Gideon (or Operación Gedeón in Spanish) after the military leader from the Hebrew Bible who led a vastly outnumbered Israelite army to decisive victory.

Was that Erik Prince's idea? Or Mike Pence's?

The failed operation led to the capture of Airan Berry and Luke Denman, both former special forces associates hired by Goudreau. Their images were broadcast widely on Venezuelan television, face-down with their arms tied behind their backs. They were each hastily sentenced in Venezuela to 20 years in prison in August under questionable due process.

[...]

A few weeks after the failed incursion, the FBI on May 21, 2020, raided a Boca Raton apartment where Goudreau was visiting and seized $56,800 in cash.

[...]

Goudreau, who was awarded three Bronze Stars for combat valor during his military career, alleges the FBI sought to lure him into a “death-by-cop” confrontation in the raid. Another participant in the coup effort confirmed Goudreau is the subject of an ongoing federal investigation.

[...]

Goudreau sat for online video interviews with Herald and McClatchy reporters from an undisclosed location. His lawyer provided what he said were the entire contents of Goudreau’s phone with contacts, social media chats, emails, text messages and photos and videos taken at training camps in Colombia. The FBI has the same contents, said Garcia-Montes, his attorney.

[...]

The special ops veteran insists his support of an attempted coup was encouraged by some in the Trump administration, including Horn and Beardsley, the Department of Veterans Affairs adviser who is also a former special forces veteran and an early and prominent African-American supporter of Trump.

[...]

According to the lawsuit against Rendon, Goudreau was introduced to Horn and Beardsley by Washington D.C. lobbyist Travis Lucas.

[...]

Lucas was one of the lawyers representing President Trump’s former bodyguard Keith Schiller in 2017 when Schiller was interviewed by the House Intelligence Committee as part of its inquiry into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

Lucas in turn introduced him to Horn and Beardsley and they met multiple times, Goudreau said. The lawsuit alleges that “Horn assured Goudreau that licenses from the United States Government regarding the procurement of weapons and armaments for the project were forthcoming.”

“Drew Horn originally wanted to set up a meeting between myself and Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago … a direct face-to-face but that never happened,” Goudreau alleged in the interview.

SOMEbody had some sense.

Invoices and emails from Lucas and shared with the Herald and McClatchy by Goudreau, show that Lucas charged him a total of $30,000 in December, 2019, for navigating laws related to foreign lobbying and federal regulations governing the export of weapons.

[...]

“I played no role whatsoever in the failed coup attempt in Venezuela, had no knowledge about the coup attempt before it transpired, and never discussed or communicated with any U.S. government official regarding a coup or uprising in Venezuela. Any suggestions to the contrary are completely false[," said Lucas through his lawyer.]

Continue reading.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.