Venezuela detains fourth American on suspicion of plotting to assassinate president; conflict with US deepens

The Venezuelan government has detained another American citizen on suspicion of plotting to assassinate Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, deepening tensions between the two countries as the Maduro regime, under sanctions from the United States, retaliates.

According to Venezuelan media El Diario on the 17th (local time), Venezuelan Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello announced at the National Assembly in Caracas that day that one additional American had been arrested for “plotting against the state.”

Secretary Cabello said the American was caught in the capital Caracas while taking photos of Venezuela’s electrical installations, oil refineries and military bases. He did not reveal the American’s identity.

This is the fourth American to have been arrested in connection with an alleged plot to assassinate President Maduro. Venezuelan authorities have previously arrested six people in connection with the case, including three Americans, two Spaniards and a Czech national.

The Venezuelan government’s continued detention of foreigners is interpreted as retaliation against foreign governments that criticized the July presidential election, which was suspected of electoral fraud, and as an attempt to solidify its domestic support base by provoking anti-foreign sentiment that “foreign governments are interfering in internal affairs.”

The Maduro regime claims that the opposition conspired with foreign forces to oust President Maduro in the July presidential election. They expelled diplomats from seven Latin American countries who had called for transparent disclosure of the results of the vote, and that foreign forces hacked the National Electoral Commission (CNE) electronic vote-counting system on the day of the election.

In particular, the conflict between Venezuela and the United States, which has continued since the days of former President Hugo Chavez, has recently deepened.

This month, the United States seized one of Maduro’s private planes in the Dominican Republic and imposed sanctions on 16 of his associates, including Venezuela’s Supreme Court President Carislia Rodriguez.

On the 14th, Secretary Cabello announced that three Americans, including a U.S. Navy member, had been arrested on suspicion of plotting to assassinate President Maduro, and claimed that the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) was also involved in the incident. The U.S. State Department immediately denied the CIA’s involvement.

Venezuela’s Democratic Opposition Union (PUD), which claimed victory in the presidential election, appears to be rapidly losing strength following the exile of its presidential candidate, Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, to Spain.

The PUD had urged the US government to revoke US energy companies’ business licenses in Venezuela the day before in order to pressure President Maduro to step down. However, some pointed out that revoking licenses would be a difficult proposal to implement as it would also be a huge loss for US companies.

Meanwhile, the UN released a report on the human rights situation in Venezuela from September 2023 to August of this year. The UN evaluated the government’s excessive suppression of anti-government protesters, saying, “The Maduro government has mobilized the most harsh and violent repressive measures since the disputed presidential election in July,” and “This is one of the most serious human rights crises in history.”