Venezuela arrests five foreign nationals for alleged conspiracy to destabilize the country

• The US and Spain have denied allegations of involvement.
• Those arrested were accused of planning “terrorist acts” and seized “more than 400 rifles.”
• Tensions escalated after opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia went into exile in Spain.

Venezuelan authorities have arrested three Americans, two Spaniards and a Czech citizen on suspicion of plotting to destabilize the country. Both the United States and Spain have denied Venezuela's accusations. The arrests come amid escalating tensions between Venezuela and these countries following the disputed presidential election on July 28, which the opposition alleges President Nicolás Maduro rigged.

Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello announced on Saturday that authorities were detaining the foreign nationals on suspicion of planning an attack on President Maduro and his government.

“We know that the US government has ties to this operation,” Cabello said.

Cabello said authorities recently arrested two Spaniards in Puerto Ayacucho in the southwest of the country. He also announced that three Americans and a Czech citizen had been arrested, linking the alleged plot to intelligence agencies in the US and Spain, as well as Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado.

Maduro has repeatedly blamed the “imperialist” United States for the problems facing his country and accused it of conspiring with his Venezuelan opponents to overthrow him. A U.S. State Department spokesman on Saturday strongly denied those allegations, saying that “any allegations of U.S. involvement in a plot to overthrow Maduro are categorically false.”

The US State Department spokesman confirmed that a US military member was being held and referred to “unconfirmed reports of two other US citizens detained in Venezuela.” Spain also denied the allegations of its involvement.

“Spain categorically denies and rejects any allegation that it is involved in an operation to politically destabilize Venezuela,” a source in the Spanish Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Cabello said the detainees had “established contact with French and Eastern European mercenaries and were involved in an operation to attack our country.” He also reported that authorities had confiscated “more than 400 rifles” and accused the detainees of planning “terrorist acts.” The Czech Republic has yet to respond to these sensational claims, which come amid a worsening standoff between Maduro and Western powers.

Maduro, who succeeded iconic leftist leader Hugo Chavez after his death in 2013, insists he has won a third term but has not released detailed voting records to support his claim. Tensions between Caracas and former colonial power Spain escalated sharply after Venezuelan opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, 75, went into exile in Spain a week ago following threats of arrest.

On Thursday, Caracas recalled its ambassador from Madrid for consultations and summoned the Spanish envoy to Venezuela for talks after a Spanish minister accused Maduro of running a “dictatorship.” Venezuela also expressed anger at Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez's decision to meet with Gonzalez Urrutia and warned Spain against any “interference” in its affairs.

Caracas is also embroiled in a war of words with the United States, which recognized Gonzalez Urrutia as the election winner. On Thursday, Washington announced new sanctions against 16 Venezuelan officials, including members of the electoral authority, for obstructing “a transparent electoral process” and failing to publish accurate results.

Venezuela condemned the measures as a “crime of aggression,” and Maduro honored four military officers affected by the sanctions. Maduro's claim that he had won a third term sparked mass opposition protests that left at least 27 dead and 192 injured.

The opposition released the results from the polling stations and claimed that they showed an overwhelming victory for Gonzalez Urrutia. The authorities arrested about 2,400 people during the unrest, including numerous young people.

Opposition leader Machado called for further protests on September 28, two months after the election, to demand international recognition of Gonzalez Urrutia as president. Maduro also claimed victory in the 2018 elections despite widespread allegations of fraud.

With the support of the military and other institutions, Maduro managed to stay in power despite international sanctions. Since 2013, gross domestic product has fallen by 80 percent in ten years during his term in office, causing more than seven million of the country's 30 million inhabitants to emigrate.

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