On 3 May, the Venezuelan authorities prevented the entry from Colombia of a group of mercenaries who intended to carry out a coup d’état in the country.
The Venezuelan authorities will ask the UN Security Council to assess the attempts to invade the Bolivarian Republic in early May. This was reported on Wednesday by President Nicolas Maduro.
“We will appeal to the UN Security Council. I instructed the Foreign Minister and our representative in New York to file a complaint with the UN Security Council, <…> to ensure legitimate international protection for Venezuela”, – he said at a press conference broadcast on Twitter.
On May 3, the Venezuelan authorities reported that they managed to prevent the infiltration from Colombia of a group of mercenaries who intended to carry out a coup d’état in the Bolivarian Republic and kill the President. According to Maduro, among the mercenaries were American citizens who are members of the Security Service of the White House head Donald Trump. During interrogation, Luke Alexander Denman, a U.S. citizen detained for participation in the operation, stated that the mercenaries should have taken control of the airport and brought President Nicolas Maduro there to take him to the United States.
The situation in Venezuela deteriorated after January 23, 2019, when the opposition leader Juan Guaydo, whose appointment as Speaker of Parliament was canceled by the Supreme Court two days earlier, declared himself Acting President. He was recognized as interim head of state by the United States, joined by the Lima Group countries (except Mexico), the Organization of American States and most EU countries. Maduro called it a coup attempt and announced that he had broken off diplomatic relations with the United States. Russia, Belarus, China, Cuba, Iran, Nicaragua, Syria and Turkey expressed their support.