The Venezuelan minister for interior, justice and peace, Diosdado Cabello, emphasized that behind the entire mercenary operation reported on Saturday is the ultra-right-winger María Corina Machado*. Machado is also fighting with the fugitive from justice, Leopoldo López**, said Cabello, for control of the money of the new mercenary operation against Venezuela.

In a special interview with the Telesur channel, Cabello said on Saturday, September 14, “They call it the ‘liberation of Venezuela;’ they are fighting over who controls it.”

Far-right Venezuelans based in the United States have launched a campaign named “Ya Casi Venezuela” (“we are almost ready, Venezuela”) where they announced that the mercenary tycoon Erik Prince will begin a massive fundraising effort to collect US 600 million dollars to organize a mercenary operation to assassinate Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and other high-ranked Chavista leaders.

Prince’s operation, according to many analysts, is directly linked with the new mercenary plot unveiled in Venezuela where US and Spanish intelligence operatives have been captured.

Venezuela’s Minister of Interior: María Corina Machado is Behind Latest Terrorist Plot

Erik Prince’s full interview on Ya Casi Venezuela is here. He says that they’ve currently raised $100 million. More notes are at the bottom of the next page.

Related:

Sailor Held by Venezuela for Alleged Maduro Assassination Plot Is a Navy SEAL, Service Records Show

Wilbert Joseph Castaneda, who has been held in Venezuela for more than two weeks, is a petty officer first class and Navy SEAL who has been in the service since 2007, according to the records provided by the Navy. A U.S. official had earlier confirmed that an enlisted sailor was detained late last month as the country is embroiled in a disputed election that Maduro claims to have won.

The Associated Press reported that Venezuela Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello identified Castaneda as one of three Americans, as well as two Spanish and one Czech citizen, who were arrested as part of the alleged assassination plot.

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Navy records for Castaneda, who appears to have first been detained, but not identified, on Aug. 30, show that the sailor joined his first SEAL team in 2009 and bounced between teams on the East and West coasts throughout his career. He was promoted to petty officer first class in June 2013.

Typically, the Navy will not offer further details of what team a SEAL is assigned to out of security concerns.

Shortly after his detention became public, a U.S. official told Military.com that Castaneda was “not on official travel or approved leave.”

CBS News reported that Castaneda had also been stripped of his Special Warfare insignia — commonly known as the Trident — indicating that the elite warfare community was in the process of removing him from its ranks.

The records offered by the Navy also do not back up Cabello’s claim that Castaneda deployed to Afghanistan, Iraq and Colombia. The Navy’s data does not show that Castaneda was awarded either the Iraq or Afghanistan campaign medals — though those records are not always complete.

The Navy’s data on Castaneda does show that he has a track record of deployments, with four Sea Service Deployment ribbons, two Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary medals, and an Armed Forces Service Medal.

His records also do not show any combat or valor awards, though he did receive three Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medals.

The Venezuelan’s allegation that Castaneda, along with the five others, were plotting to overthrow Maduro is not as far-fetched as it may seem.

In 2020, a former U.S. Green Beret, Jordan Goudreau, helped arm and train a group of around 300 Venezuelan army deserters in neighboring Colombia who were then supposed to sneak into Venezuela and help ignite a rebellion against Maduro.

The plan fell apart, several combatants were killed by Venezuelan security forces, and two of Goudreau’s U.S. Special Forces compatriots were arrested by the Maduro regime.

Goudreau was arrested in July 2024 in New York on federal arms smuggling charges and is now awaiting trial.