Venezuelan Authorities Report Detaining 3 Americans, Including Navy SEAL, in Plot to Assassinate Maduro

Last updated on September 17th, 2024 at 09:20 am

Authorities in Venezuela announced on Sept. 15 that they had detained three U.S. citizens and three European nationals in an alleged conspiracy to assassinate President Nicolás Maduro.

Venezuelan Interior Minister Diosdado Cabella announced the arrests in a broadcast on Venezuelan state television on Sunday. He identified those captured as three Americans, two Spanish nationals, and a Czech national.

During the broadcast, Cabella shared images of weapons Venezuelan authorities allegedly seized during the arrest operations.

Cabella also identified one of the captured Americans as Wilbert Joseph Castañeda Gomez, whom Venezuelan authorities described as a U.S. Navy SEAL.

“We can confirm the detention of a U.S. military member and are aware of unconfirmed reports of two additional U.S. citizens detained in Venezuela,” the U.S. State Department said in an emailed statement on Sept. 16.

The State Department denied any involvement in the alleged assassination plot, stating, “Any claims of U.S. involvement in a plot to overthrow Maduro are categorically false.”

In an emailed statement, the U.S. Navy said Gomez was last assigned to a West Coast-based special warfare unit.

A Navy official, speaking on background, said Gomez was on active duty at the time of his arrest in Venezuela, but said Gomez’s travel was not authorized.

The arrests come amid a period of heightened tensions between the U.S. government and the Maduro government in Venezuela.

The U.S. government has questioned Venezuela’s 2018 presidential election and its most recent one; both of which saw Venezuelan election authorities declare Maduro the winner.

Venezuela’s 2018 election set the stage for a presidential dispute in which Maduro’s political opposition in the Venezuelan National Assembly moved to invalidate the results and position then-assembly leader Juan Guaidó as the nation’s interim president. The U.S. government backed Guaidó’s claim to the presidency.

By March 2020, the U.S. Department of Justice had named Maduro in a criminal indictment, alleging he and other Venezuelan leaders have been complicit in trafficking cocaine into the United States, in partnership with the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC). FARC is a guerilla faction that’s battled on-and-off with the U.S.-backed Colombian government since the 1960s.

The U.S. government again called into doubt Venezuala’s presidential election in July, in which election authorities declared Maduro had won a third term. The United States has increased economic sanctions against Venezuelan officials in the weeks since the election.

The alleged assassination plot against Maduro bears similarities to a May 2020 plot, in which to U.S. Army Green Beret veterans–Airan Berry and Luke Denman–were detained, alongside dozens of additional suspects, in a plot to capture Maduro and upend his government.

The U.S. government has denied it was involved in the May 2020 plot. In July, U.S. federal prosecutors announced charges against another Green Beret veteran, Jordan Goudreau, in connection with the failed plot. Prosecutors specifically targeted Goudreau for allegedly smuggling firearms and other military gear as part of the 2020 plot.

Berry and Denman remain captive in Venezuela following the May 2020 plot.

This article has been updated with additional details about Wilbert Joseph Castañeda Gomez.