On the 1st May, Joshua Goodman, AP reporter for Latin America, released an article detailing a plan by a former US Green Beret - Jordan Goudreau and former Venezuelan general -Cliver Alcala to conduct an operation inside Venezuela to overthrow Maduro from power. The article notes the plan as having been a failed attempt, but just 24 hours later the plan was being put into motion as a group of soldiers embarked on an attempted raid of Caracas.

I recommend reading the article to get the backstory of the events in Venezuela over the past few days. You can read it here

At around 4am local time on the 3rd May, locals in the town of Macuto near La Guaira ,just a few kilometres from Caracas, reported hearing a helicopter overhead. Just a few minutes later a large number of police special forces and Venezuelan security forces were reported in the area, as well as a coast guard boat just a few hundred meters off the shoreline, shortly after a short gun battle was heard by residents.

A couple of hours later, just after sunrise, Nestor Reverol (Venezuela’s interior minister) appeared on state TV to announce that “ A group of mercenaries” attempted a sea invasion on the coast of La Guaira, he announced that they had been shot and detained, this was the first confirmation that a serious incident had occurred.

Just 2 hours after Nestor Reverols TV appearance, a number of photos appeared online showing weapons, vehicles and equipment that had been seized from a garage along the coast.

The images above show the 2 armoured pick up trucks with machine guns mounted on the truck bed, as well as thousands of rounds of ammunition for the machine guns, a number of guns were found in the trucks, mainly guns used by the Venezuelan army and are likely weapons stolen from the army.

Above is the location of the garage where the trucks and weapons were found, just a few hundred meters west of Macuto down a quiet street.

The gun shown above was found in the garage with the trucks, but this gun has been seen before. The same AR was used by a soldier during the failed uprising on April 30 2019. It’s unknown how this gun ended up here but it’s likely that the soldier seen using it last year was a member of Operacion Gedeon.

A boat was found on some rocks around 200 meters away from the garage, below is the location of the small boat, that supposedly carried 10 members of Operacion Gedeon.

The above images show the location that the boat was found at, as well as what was found in the boat, a number of AR rifles, ID documents, communication equipment and extra fuel in jerry cans. It’s unclear why there was a US patch attached to the helmet found. It’s unlikely that this was the only equipment they were carrying although so far this is all that has been recovered.

During the events of Sunday morning its reported that 8 members of Operacion Gedeon were killed and 2 captured (Jorge Rodriguez in a press conference on 06/05/2020 states that 6 had been killed, 4 captured and 1 member of operacion Gedeon had escaped). One of those killed was called Robert Colina (Alias Pantera) who was one of the leaders of Operacion Gedeon. his death was initially denied by the group but a photo has since been released showing Robert Colinas body. Another body was pulled from the sea by the Venezuelan coast guard just hours after the incident. Below shows the corpse of Robert Colina and the body of an unknown man presumed to be a member of Operacion Gedeon who was pulled from the sea.

Later in the day Operacion Gedeon appeared online and announced themselves as a group fighting to free Venezuela. Videos were released showing multiple groups of former Venezuelan soldiers in military uniforms and standardised equipment in training camps out in La Guajira.

The above video shows multiple groups that supposedly form the group of Operacion Gedeon, according to information from the AP article, they are located in 3 remote camps out in La Guajira, Colombia. One of those in the video is Robert Colina, the soldier killed in the La Guaira raid.

At the end of the day on Sunday Silvercorp, Jordan Goudreaus private contracting company posted on twitter that they had 60 operators inside Venezuela, including 2 former US Special Forces soldiers, during an interview with a Venezuelan journalist he also said that their mission inside Venezuela would continue. Jordan Goudreau also released a video where they claimed that their men had launched a ‘daring amphibious raid although he did not address the fact that 8 of his men were now dead and 2 captured,

The next day, May 4th at a small village in Chuaomar, Aragua, 8 men were arrested after trying to enter Venezuela on a small boat.

The above video shows 10 men on a boat being held at gunpoint by police on the shore while a Venezuelan navy helicopter conducts a low pass over them, it is thought that the Venezuelan government had received information about the boat and had dispatched a helicopter to search for them, the images below show photos taken from the helicopter of the boat with the 10 Operacion Gedeon members on board.

It quickly became clear that these men were part of Operacion Gedeon when photos were released showing them being detained. Also included is the location in Chuoamar where the boat was captured.

Questions about their identities were quickly answered when the identity of one of the men detained was released, one of the men was named as Josnars Adolfo Baduel, son of General Raul Baduel a prominent Venezuelan political prisoner. The identities of 2 other members were quickly identified by Operacion Gedeon themselves. They are Luke Denman and Airan Berry. 2 US citizens and both are former US Special Forces soldiers.

The Above photos show both Luke Denman and Airan Berry on the same boat they were captured on, the photo was reportedly taken just a few hours before their capture, the other photo shows Josnars Adolfo Baduel with members of Operacion Gedeon in at one of the camps in La Guajira, Colombia.

After they were captured, all of them were taken to La Guaira port, where they were transferred into the custody of SEBIN and taken away, with some taken to the notorious El Helicoide in Caracas.

Antonio Sequea, a former Venezuelan National Guard Captain who participated in the April 30 uprising was also amongst those detained, in the photos below he can be seen after being detained yesterday and can also be seen in a photo outside La Carlota airbase in Caracas last year alongside Leopoldo Lopez during the failed April 30 uprising.

In the video above both Antonio Sequea and Adolfo Baduel were taken by Venezuelan Navy custody to be handed over to SEBIN (Bolivarian National Intelligence Service)

The other 6 men were transferred by a Venezuelan Navy boat to Caracas where they were officially handed over to SEBIN, this can be seen in the below video.

Last night Maduro held a special TV show where he showed off equipment that had been seized by his security forces from the Operacion Gedeon members during the day.

Maduro showed photos of their passports as well as Lukes military ID and Airans VA card. Photos of both the men being taken off the Venezuelan navy vessel also appeared.

Just a few hours after the Operacion Gedeon group had been captured in Chuaomar, 2 men were arrested just 16km away in Puerto Maya, a small fishing village.

The photos above show all the equipment captured with the 2 men who were arrested, they were carrying communications equipment, masks, fully loaded magazines and numerous plate carriers and vests, all of this equipment is Operacion Gedeons equipment. It’s unclear how the men ended up in Puerto Mayo with all of the equipment but they are also presumed to be Operacion Gedeon members.

US President Trump has added that the operation has nothing to do with the US government

This is just a timeline of events from the release of the AP article on Monday to the release of this article 05/05/2020. This article will be updated when more information is made clear.

None of the photos or videos used are my own, most photos used can be found at @RCamachoVzla