Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs President Maduro said the group included mercenaries and ‘hit men’, describing two US detainees as ‘very high level’.Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has announced the arrest of a group of foreign “mercenaries”, including Colombian and United States citizens, who he said were plotting to prevent his inauguration later this week.
Maduro said on Tuesday that the group was planning “terrorist acts” ahead of the inauguration ceremony on Friday, describing them as two Colombian “hitmen”, three “mercenaries” from the war in Ukraine and two US citizens.
He said the detained Americans were “very high level,” but he did not provide further details or evidence of the arrests.
“Just today, we’ve captured seven foreign mercenaries, including two important mercenaries from the United States,” he said in a broadcast on state television, before declaring a mass deployment of police and military across the country.
“I am sure that in the next few hours, they will confess,” he added.
Maduro, who is set to take office for a third term on Friday following last July’s contested election, said the group was captured in unspecified parts of Venezuela.
In remarks delivered from the Miraflores presidential palace, he also said that security forces had captured a total of 125 foreign mercenaries from 25 different countries. He said they had entered the South American nation “to practise terrorism against the Venezuelan people”.
Neither the US Department of State nor Colombia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs immediately responded to requests for comment.
Maduro, who first came to power in 2013, has over the years made frequent wild claims of US-led plots to depose him.
In late 2023, Venezuela’s government released dozens of prisoners including 10 Americans after months of negotiations between Caracas and Washington, while the US released a close ally of Maduro, Colombian businessman Alex Saab.
The latest arrests came just hours after US President Joe Biden met with exiled Venezuelan opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia as well as after reports that Gonzalez Urrutia’s son-in-law had been abducted in Caracas.
During the meeting, Biden said he backed a “peaceful transfer back to democratic rule” in Venezuela and warned against further repression inside the country.
He tenido una larga reunión con el Presidente Biden. Su compromiso con una transición pacífica y ordenada en Venezuela, está intacto. Durante 45 minutos pudimos profundizar sobre lo positivo que será, para la región, la expansión de la democracia partiendo desde Venezuela.… pic.twitter.com/PuBS6vvgqL
— Edmundo González (@EdmundoGU) January 6, 2025
Translation: I had a long meeting with President Biden. His commitment to a peaceful and orderly transition in Venezuela remains intact. For 45 minutes, we were able to discuss in depth the positive impact that the expansion of democracy starting from Venezuela will have on the region. Thank you, President Biden!
Gonzalez Urrutia – who has been declared president-elect by several governments in the region, including the US – is touring friendly countries in a bid to grow his international support.
Washington and several of Venezuela’s democratic neighbours believe the opposition leader won the July presidential election by a landslide and that official results were falsified.
The opposition has called for “millions” of Venezuelans to turn out in protest on Thursday to prevent Maduro from retaining power and being officially sworn in.
They face an uphill battle.
The 62-year-old Maduro and his political mentor Hugo Chavez, who died in 2013, have between them governed Venezuela for the last quarter century.
Both have swatted aside waves of international and domestic pressure, retaining power through populist appeal, disputed elections and the might of the military, police and paramilitary gangs.
