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full screen Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. Photo: Ariana Cubillos/AP
Two Spanish citizens have been arrested on suspicion of sabotage in Venezuela.
They are accused of being part of a destabilization operation led by the CIA.
– Spain denies and firmly rejects any suggestion of involvement, says the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
14 people have been arrested in Venezuela on suspicion of a destabilization operation linked to opposition leader María Corina Machado, Venezuela’s Interior Ministry says Spanish Cope.
Two of those arrested are Spanish nationals whom Venezuela links to Spain’s CNI intelligence service.
They are accused, among other things, of having collusion with people who are said to have prepared an assassination plan against President Nicolás Maduro.
Venezuela’s Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello states that the operation is led by the American intelligence service CIA.
– The CIA is responsible for this operation and the others involved, which also does not surprise us, are Spain’s National Intelligence Service. These captured people are talking about a group of mercenaries who are looking to get to Venezuela with different goals, he says.
Spain denies allegations of involvement and says the two jailed men do not belong to the CNI.
– Spain firmly denies and rejects any suggestion that it is involved in a political destabilization operation in Venezuela, says the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in a statement.
Incumbent President Nicolás Maduro is accused of electoral fraud after the declared victory in the presidential election in July. Both the EU, the USA and the UN have demanded that election data be reported.