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Trump’s guard officers were among mercenaries who snuck into Venezuela - Maduro

To prove that, Venezuelan President demonstrated documents of Luke Denman and Aaron Berry

BOGOTA, May 5. /TASS/. Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on Monday has revealed that US citizens who work for US leader Donald Trump’s security service were among the mercenaries who invaded the country, Maduro said during his speech in Caracas.

"Traitor Antonio Sequea is among the captives as well as citizen whose surname is Baduel who said that the invasion group included two Americans from the security unit of [US President] Donald Trump," Maduro said whose speech was broadcast by the state TV. The Venezuelan president added that two US citizens were later apprehended. To prove that, he demonstrated documents of Luke Denman and Aaron Berry.

On May 3, the Venezuelan authorities announced that they had successfully foiled an attempt to infiltrate the country by a mercenary group travelling from Colombia looking to stage a coup d’etat in Venezuela. According to President of Constitutional Assembly Diosdado Cabello, the mercenaries were trying to break through into the country aboard boats.

Colombia rejected the statement of the Venezuelan side. According to the Colombian authorities, Caracas is putting forward unfounded accusations against Bogota to distract from the country’s domestic issues.

TASS reached out to the White House for a comment but no response has been received yet.

The political crisis in Venezuela exacerbated on January 23, 2019, when Juan Guaido, Venezuelan opposition leader and parliament speaker, whose appointment to that position had been cancelled by the country’s Supreme Court, declared himself interim president at a rally in the country’s capital of Caracas. Several countries, including the United States, most of the EU states, Lima Group members (excluding Mexico), Australia, Albania, Georgia and Israel, as well as the Organization of American States, recognized him.

Incumbent President of the country Nicolas Maduro, in turn, blasted the move as a coup staged by Washington and said he was severing diplomatic ties with the US. In contrast, Russia, Belarus, Bolivia, Iran, Cuba, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Syria and Turkey voiced support for Maduro.

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