US Spy captured in Venezuela worked 10 years in Iraq for the CIA
The US spy was part of a mercenary contractor named MVM, with whom he worked in Iraq for a decade and was part of a secret CIA base
The Attorney General of Venezuela, Tarek William Saab, reported this Monday on the arrest of a group of people, including a spy of US origin identified as Matthew Jhon Heath, whose mission was to carry out criminal and terrorist actions to sabotage important sectors of the country. Also, among his objectives was to assassinate President Nicolás Maduro.
Saab indicated that last Friday, September 11, the Public Ministry (MP) was informed about the espionage and sabotage activities planned by US intelligence agents and Venezuelan collaborators that were being executed in the country.
According to the information collected, those involved would have the objective of attacking the “stability and the democracy” in Venezuela, among them “a US citizen, presumably a military man, who was carrying out espionage and destabilization activities”.
“All this was carried out with the support of unpatriotic military and civilians, financed not to participate in a patron saint celebration or sporting event (…) a new action of aggression against Venezuela with US participation”, he said.
The Prosecutor explained that these men “wanted to cause harm, like the sanctions, against the majority of the Venezuelan population”.
“They sought to harm everyone equally, with attacks against the military and state industries, which include the National Electric Service, as well as the oil industry”, he said.
Saab commented that through the 54th National Prosecutor’s Office, a request was made to the 1st Control Court with Competence in Cases Related to Crimes Associated with Terrorism, to issue an arrest warrant against Marcos Antonio Garcés Carapaica; Darwin Andreizo Urdaneta Pardo and Reinaldo Enrique Finol; for the alleged commission of treason and association.
“These citizens had planned the entry of US agents into our territory, using the border axis of the Colombian Guajira, to later obtain strategic information on the Amuay refinery, in order to carry out possible sabotage actions, as well as to the military units in Zulia and Falcón; and the planning of actions of illicit drug trafficking from Colombia to Aruba”, he commented.
He added that the irregular group “would use Venezuelan territory to ‘prop up’ the campaign of discredit and aggression imposed by the United States Government against the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela”.
Spy captured with war weapons
The Prosecutor explained that, on September 11, officials attached to the General Directorate of Military Counter-intelligence arrested, in flagrante delicto, Marcos Garcés and Darwin Urdaneta on the Falcón-Zulia national highway.
According to the findings, Darwin Urdaneta belongs to the Bolivarian National Armed Forces, and was in uniform; with Daeven Enrique Rodríguez Argueta (conductor) and the American citizen Matthew Jhon Heath; who were traveling in a Chery vehicle, Arauca model.
“After the inspection of the vehicle, an 84-millimeter caliber AT4 grenade launcher was found; a 9-millimeter caliber UZI submachine gun; four rectangular pieces of suspected explosive material (C4) and money in foreign currency. We can qualify these weapons as lethal, in order to promote murders and crimes against the people of Venezuela”, said Saab.
He explained that a satellite phone was also found, three cell phones; a cap-like clothing with a logo alluding to a Venezuelan State entity, among other personal items.
“These actions have ‘double marking’, because they are carried out in the midst of a pandemic and against the efforts of the Venezuelan State to protect the people from COVID-19 infections”, Saab stressed.
The Prosecutor added that the US citizen did not carry a passport with formal entry into the country, since “he only had a photocopy of that document hidden inside his shoe”.
“This citizen was the one who carried a satellite phone, which he refused to unlock (…) The US citizen was found to carry photographs of oil and military installations in Zulia and Falcón. In the inspection of the vehicle, a coin that links it to the United States Central Intelligence Agency was found inside one of the bags. It is presumed that he works or worked for the CIA”, Saab explained.
Destabilize the country with mercenaries
Saab commented that the US spy was part of a mercenary contractor named MVM, with whom he worked in Iraq for a decade and was part of a secret CIA base.
“We know that the MVM company is used by Washington to outsource its destabilization plans in other countries. It was established that Matthew Jhon Heath belonged to the mercenary contractor MVM, serving a mission in Iraq from 2006 to 2016, three months per year; where he worked as a communications operator in the CIA’s Secret Base”, he added.
He added that through the processing of information derived from the apprehension of these four citizens, it was possible to identify other persons involved in the operation.
“This is how officials of the Special Action Forces in Zulia identified and captured Ivonne Coromoto Barrios Finol, owner of the vehicle, Leobaldo Antonio Gutiérrez, Andry Ramón Finol and Asterio José González García; all are part of the logistics team for the irregular entry and transfer of the North American agent in Venezuelan territory”, he stressed.
Saab indicated that at the time of the arrest, the citizens stated that a person named Juan; resident in Colombia, made a call to Asterio González from an international number. In it, he indicated that an American wanted to move from the border area of Paraguachón, Zulia, to the city of Punto Fijo, in Falcón; having as final destination the island of Aruba, but that said person did not have legal documentation.
“Ivonne Barrios, wife of Daeven Rodríguez; indicated that Leobaldo Gutiérrez, Andry Finol and Asterio González had hired her husband to transport a North American citizen to Coro, and indicated that her husband was in the company of a 3rd Sergeant Major named Darwin Urdaneta, in order to circumvent the points of control implemented by citizen security agencies”, he commented.
The Prosecutor added that all these Venezuelan citizens will be charged with crimes of treason, terrorism, illicit arms trafficking and association; while the US citizen is charged with the crimes of terrorism, illicit arms trafficking and association.
“Last night, at 09:30 at night, the hearing ended in Falcón, where jurisdiction was declined to the 1st Control Court with Jurisdiction in Cases Linked to Crimes Associated with Terrorism, based in Caracas”, he said.
The Southern Command is behind these plans
The Attorney General added that “all these events” are described in the document signed by the former head of the United States Southern Command, Admiral Kurt Tidd, called “Plan to overthrow the Venezuelan dictatorship — Master coup”, dated February 2018 ; and that it is being applied by his successor Admiral Craig S. Faller.
“This document, in its English version, can be reviewed on the Voltaire Network page. There, the Southern Command details all the mechanisms developed in recent years to achieve the overthrow of the democratic government of Venezuela through violence”, he stressed.
“Among the strategies listed to achieve this are mentioned ‘attacking President Nicolás Maduro, encouraging that he is to be besieged, ridicule him and show him as a symbol of clumsiness and incompetence, expose him as a satellite of Cuba (…) encourage popular dissatisfaction by increasing the destabilization process and the shortages; increase internal instability to critical levels, intensifying the decapitalization of the country, the flight of foreign capital and the deterioration of the national currency, through the application of new inflationary measures that increase this deterioration”, he explained.
In addition, it is also planned to “obstruct imports and at the same time demotivate potential foreign investors to contribute to making the situation of the population more critical; appeal to domestic allies as well as other people inserted in the national scene with the aim of generating protests, riots and insecurity, pillage, looting, robbery, assaults and hijacking of ships and other means of transport, with the intention of depleting the country, across all borders and other possible ways, endangering the national security of its neighbors”.
Saab said that the document considers it important to “cause victims” and to hold the Venezuelan government responsible, “magnifying, in the face of the world, the humanitarian crisis to which the country is subjected”.
“To link the Government with drug trafficking to discredit its image before the world and its domestic followers; structuring a plan to achieve the desertion of the most qualified professionals in the country, so as to leave them without professionals at all, which will further aggravate the internal situation and in this sense blame the government; continue to toughen the conditions within the Armed Forces to carry out a coup”, says the text quoted by Saab.
The Southern Command document also orders “to continue the continuous fire on the border with Colombia, multiply the trafficking of fuel and other goods, the movement of paramilitaries, armed incursions and drug trafficking, causing armed incidents with border security forces; intensify discontent against the Maduro regime; point out the incompetence of the integration mechanisms created by Cuba and Venezuela, especially ALBA and Petrocaribe; and show President Maduro as solely responsible for the crisis in which ‘he has plunged’ the nation”.
“After that document was made known, the country has experienced a succession of attacks on its institutions, armed aggressions and coup attempts, just as the document proposes”, added the Prosecutor, who listed some of these criminal actions.
Among these activities against the country are: “Assassination attempt on August 4, 2018, self-proclamation of Juan Guaidó as supposed interim president in February 2019, attempted coup on April 30, 2019 (Operation Freedom); assault on the Battalion in the Gran Sabana on December 22, 2019 (Operation Aurora) and the incursion of mercenaries on May 3, 2020 (Operation Gideon); along with other attempts that were aborted before they were made; and that they have aimed to assassinate or overthrow the country’s authorities”.
“Since the moment that all these events occurred so as to try to fill the country with blood; the Venezuelan State has managed to neutralize the plans to attack the oil industry and the national electricity system”, the Prosecutor said to conclude.
