This Friday, Venezuelan interior minister Miguel Rodríguez Torres is set to present a report on an alleged plot to overthrow the government by stoking violence during opposition protests over the last three months. In a speech on Wednesday, Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro said the report would detail “the captures that we’ve made of all of the people behind the coup d’etat”. Among those accused are an American citizen and two members of drug gangs, whom Maduro said had financed and directed members of the opposition in setting up guarimbas, or street barricades, during protests.
The American’s identity, he said, would be revealed on Friday. The Venezuelan president also said during his address that among those captured and implicated in the plot were “a terrorist of Arab origin” and a man dubbed “the Aviator” who had received funding from the United States to furnish weapons, money, and technology. “He’s singing more than Pavarotti, he’s telling everything,” said Maduro of the latter. He went on to warn “the kids who were hired” to participate in acts of violence around opposition barricades that “the time will come for these terrorist ruffians when justice reaches them too”.
Since protests broke out in cities across Venezuela in mid-February – ignited by the shooting deaths of three protestors by agents in the national intelligence service – at least 41 people have died, 674 have been injured and about 2,200 detained, according to the Associated Press. Maduro has repeatedly accused opposition lawmakers who helped convene protests calling for the president’s exit from office of attempting to stage a coup, and one of the most visible leaders, former mayor of a Caracas district Leopoldo López, remains behind bars as he faces charges which could land him in jail for 17 years.
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