DISINFO: The US attempted to bring about regime change in Venezuela
SUMMARY
The US attempted to destabilise President Maduro’s government and to bring about regime change in Venezuela. Russia and China helped Maduro resist the US’s efforts.
RESPONSE
Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation about the May 2020 attempted coup in Venezuela claiming that the US government was involved in organising it.
This is part of a recurrent Russian disinformation narrative about US-led regime change operations against left-wing governments in Latin America.
The claims that the United States was involved in the failed military incursion of 1 May 2020 in Venezuela are unfounded. The coup was orchestrated by former Canadian-American Green Beret Jordan Goudreau, who was found guilty of the coup attempt, along with two former colleagues and several Venezuelan opposition fighters trained in Colombia. Goudreau is the founder of Silvercorp, a private contractor agency based in Florida.
According to a Bellingcat open source investigation, some representatives of the Venezuelan opposition may have been involved in the attempted coup d’état, at least in an early stage of its preparation. The US government, though, has denied any participation or prior knowledge of the operation, a version that is supported by its amateurishness and lack of professionalism, highlighted by many independent observers.
Goudreau was investigated by US federal authorities on potential charges of arms trafficking. US experts pointed out that military contractors may have been motivated to act by the 15 million dollar reward put by the Trump Administration on Nicolás Maduro after his indictment on drug-trafficking charges.
The article also claims, without providing any evidence, that the US orchestrated an attempt to destabilise Venezuela, suggesting that the popular protests that erupted prior to the failed coup were promoted by the US. This is a pro-Kremlin narrative that identifies mass popular protests as 'colour revolutions' sponsored by Western actors for geopolitical purposes. Food shortages, widespread poverty and hyperinflation have generated mass protests and a wave of 3 million refugees from Venezuela.
Nicolas Maduro was officially re-elected president of Venezuela on May 20, 2018, but the presidential elections were defined by international organisations as neither free, nor fair, nor credible, lacking democratic legitimacy.
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