The mayor of Venezuela’s capital Caracas has accused Colombia and the US of conspiring to stage a coup to assassinate the Venezuelan president, Colombian newspaper El Espectador reported on Wednesday.
Caracas Mayor Jorge Rodriguez claimed to have evidence of the coup and assassination plans from intercepted emails allegedly sent between Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, among others, and the US’s newly-appointed ambassador to Colombia, Kevin Whitaker.
“We announce (…) that there is a complex plan aimed at ending the peace in this country, including, in the first place, the assassination attempt (…) from Venezuela’s right-wing attempt to assassinate President Nicolas Maduro along with a military coup in development, which has fortunately been disabled,” said Rodriguez.
Rodriguez also claimed that within the emails was evidence that student protests that have been ongoing in Venezuela since February were not in any way spontaneous.
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The Venezuelan mayor said that the protests were just one phase of an “ongoing coup” aimed at destabilizing the region and eliminating President Maduro, so that foreign intervention could be imposed.
From one of the intercepted emails, Rodriguez alleged that Machado communicated with a lawyer stating, “Kevin Whitaker has already reconfirmed support to me and indicated new steps.”
The alleged email went on to read, “We have a stronger checkbook than the regime, for to break the international security ring that they themselves had created.”
Rodriguez indicated that the US ambassador to Colombia is involved in the plans to destabilize the Venezuelan government and that on Wednesday the US House of Representatives is scheduled to vote on a motion to encourage the Obama administration to impose sanctions against members of the Venezuelan Government suspected of violating human rights.