CARACAS – Three Americans, two Spaniards and a Czech citizen have been detained in Venezuela on suspicion of plotting to destabilise the country, the government said, as the United States and Spain denied Caracas’s allegations they were involved.

The arrests come amid heightened tensions between Venezuela and both the United States and Spain over Venezuela’s disputed 28 July presidential election, which the country’s opposition accuses President Nicolas Maduro of stealing.

Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello said on Saturday the foreign nationals were being held on suspicion of planning an attack on Maduro and his government.
“We know the United States government has links to this operation,” Cabello asserted.

Cabello said two Spaniards were recently detained in Puerto Ayacucho in the southwest and added that three Americans and a Czech national were also arrested and linked the alleged plot to intelligence agencies in the United States and Spain, as well as to Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado.

Maduro has blamed the tide of adversity his country faces on the “imperialist” United States, which he accuses of conspiring with his Venezuelan opponents to overthrow him.

Maduro, who succeeded iconic left-wing leader Hugo Chavez on his death in 2013, insists he won a third term but failed to release detailed voting tallies to back his claim.

Tensions between Caracas and former colonial power Spain rose sharply after Venezuelan opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia (75), went into exile in Spain a week ago, after being threatened with arrest. Caracas on Thursday recalled its ambassador to Madrid for consultations and summoned Spain’s envoy to Venezuela for talks after a Spanish minister accused Maduro of running a “dictatorship.” 

– Nampa/AFP