CARACAS—Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on Tuesday (Wednesday in Manila) announced the arrest of seven foreigners—including two Americans—whom he accused of being “mercenaries” trying to prevent him from being sworn-in for another six years in power.
Maduro said the Americans, two Colombian “hitmen” and three “mercenaries” from the war in Ukraine were involved in plotting unspecified “terrorist acts” ahead of his planned inauguration Friday.
“I am sure that in the next few hours they will confess,” Maduro said in a broadcast on state television, before declaring a mass deployment of police and military across the country.
The announcement of Americans being detained came just hours after President Joe Biden welcomed exiled Venezuelan opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia in the United States.
During the meeting, Biden backed a “peaceful transfer back to democratic rule” in Venezuela and warned against further repression inside the country.
The United States and several of Venezuela’s democratic neighbors believe Gonzalez Urrutia won a July presidential election by a landslide and that official results were falsified.
The opposition has called for “millions” of Venezuelans to turn out in protest Thursday to prevent Maduro from retaining power and being officially sworn in.
They face an uphill battle. The 62-year-old Maduro and his political mentor Hugo Chavez, who died in 2013, have between them ruled Venezuela for the last quarter century.
Both have swatted aside waves of international and domestic pressure, retaining power through populist appeal, disputed elections and the might of the military, police and paramilitary gangs.
Faced with a new challenge, Maduro has again turned to the security forces to dull international and domestic pressure.
