- 7 months ago
The recent capture of Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro by American forces recalls a botched 2020 coup attempt that resulted in the imprisonment of two former US Army Green Berets. Since then, there have been major developments in this bizarre story known as the “Bay of Piglets."
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00:01On January 3rd, U.S. military forces captured Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in Caracas.
00:07Maduro is being tried in New York for drug trafficking and weapons charges.
00:12It was a wild 24 hours, and it reminded me of an even wilder story I covered in 2020
00:18after reports surfaced of a supposed failed coup against the Venezuelan government, this
00:24one on a much smaller scale than the one we saw this year.
00:27What you're about to see remains one of the most bizarre stories I've ever covered, but
00:31stay tuned because at the end I'll share some fascinating and important updates about the
00:36story that many have described as the Bay of Piglets.
00:43This Venezuela state TV footage made headlines around the world.
00:50Venezuelan security rounding up a group of men in a village on the country's northern
00:55coast.
00:56Some of the captured men were wearing t-shirts and shorts, some of them wearing no shoes
01:01or shirts at all.
01:04What's your name?
01:07Luke Alexander Denman.
01:09Two of the men captured were Americans, ex-U.S. Army Green Berets.
01:14And Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro said dozens more were captured and eight men killed.
01:21They were arrested, arrested, and arrested by the law of Venezuela.
01:29Maduro said the men planned to enter Venezuela on its northern coast and make their way to
01:35Caracas, where they would attempt to kidnap him.
01:39But the U.S. State Department called this footage propaganda.
01:43In a statement to Business Insider, a spokesperson called it scripted, coordinated, and staged by the illegitimate Maduro regime.
01:52Many reports about the footage characterized it as the aftermath of an attempted but failed coup against the current Venezuelan government.
02:01But some key questions remain unanswered.
02:05Something had gone terribly wrong.
02:07Business Insider spoke to Luke Denman's brother, Mark, along with the U.S. State Department and other key figures to try and understand what happened in May and what happens next.
02:20In 1700 hours, a daring amphibious raid was launched from the border of Colombia deep into the heart of Caracas.
02:28This is the man behind the mission, Jordan Goudreau, also a former U.S. Green Beret, and founder of a private security firm called Silvercore USA.
02:40Goudreau reportedly planned the mission known as Operation Gideon that led to the two Americans being captured.
02:48We manage risk anywhere, anytime, any situation.
02:56In this promotional video from Silvercore's Instagram, Goudreau is presented as an athletic, adventurous, very patriotic soldier for hire.
03:07Born in Canada, Goudreau eventually became a U.S. citizen and joined the Army Special Forces.
03:14He served for about 15 years, and during that time, he met Luke Denman and Aaron Berry.
03:21He was their, from what I understand, their superior officer and heavily respected guy that had a lot more time in than they did.
03:30After his service, Goudreau founded Silvercore USA in 2018.
03:39In February 2019, Goudreau was reportedly hired to work security at a concert event on the border of Venezuela and Colombia.
03:47He posted this video to Silvercore's Instagram account with the caption, Venezuela Aid Live, controlling chaos on the Venezuela border where a dictator looks on with apprehension.
03:59The dictator in question seems to be Maduro.
04:03We're here to urge all nations to support the democratic aspirations of the Venezuelan people as they try to free themselves from former President Maduro's illegitimate mafia state.
04:14Opposition parties in Venezuela have long claimed that Maduro's 2018 presidential election did not meet international democratic standards.
04:26The time is now to support the Venezuelan people, to recognize the new democratic government led by Interim President Guaido, and end this nightmare.
04:34Juan Guaido, the president of the National Assembly, claimed the title of interim leader in January 2019.
04:43And political bodies, including the European Union, the Lima Group, and the U.S. government, recognized the 37-year-old opposition leader as the legitimate president of Venezuela.
04:55And Guaido's team was looking for ways to get Maduro out.
05:00So, President Guaido said, OK, everything is over the table.
05:06And under the table, too.
05:09Juan Rendon, otherwise known as J.J. Rendon, worked as an advisor to Juan Guaido.
05:16So, when they say that, and they say, OK, explore everything, we explore different scenarios of use of force.
05:25Jordan Goudreau was working on one such scenario of his own.
05:31A few months after posting this video, Goudreau traveled to Bogota, where he met Cliver Alcala, a former Venezuelan army general.
05:42This is a person who was one of the generals close to Chavez when Chavez was president and in his inner circle.
05:49This is Juan Cruz, a former member of the National Security Council who served as a special assistant to President Trump.
05:57When Maduro comes on the scene, there's a falling out. That wasn't uncommon.
06:01He was one of the individuals that was too often associated with saying out loud that he wanted to displace or overthrow Maduro.
06:09The Associated Press reported that Alcala said he had a training camp with a few dozen men in Colombia, and Goudreau said Silver Corps could train them.
06:19So he sought the backing of Guaido's government, which led him to J.J. Rendon.
06:26With Jordan, he asked to have a moment to pitch his company. He said that he was in contact with the Venezuelans in Colombia, and they were in touch and they were planning something.
06:39Rendon said Goudreau told him the cost of the mission itself would be covered by a secret group of backers, and that upon completion, he wanted a payment of $212 million.
06:51He said that he has this plan, and that he has these people, and that he has backers.
06:58Interesting. Who are they? Oh, I cannot reveal to you.
07:03Okay, but if you have a big backers with a big army ready to go, we're going to know about it.
07:11And we want that to be aligned or at least under the supervision of our government.
07:17That's when Rendon began to grow suspicious.
07:29Rendon said he and Guaido's government cut all ties with Goudreau, paying him only $50,000 for any expenses and to wash their hands clean.
07:39He was like, let's get out of this. Oh, my expenses. Okay, there you go. How much you spent? $43,500.
07:46Okay, in case you've missed something, I will give you $50,000.
07:50But preparations at the camps in Colombia continued with the help of the two former Green Berets.
07:57Here's Luke Denman's older brother, Mark.
08:00Luke saying this is a U.S. government-backed operation back in February the 2nd.
08:04We interviewed Mark via Skype on June 15th.
08:07What he told me, he was training Venezuelans in Colombia and had no intention of going to Venezuela at all.
08:15But obviously, that's not what happened.
08:18At 1700 hours, a daring amphibious raid was launched.
08:22The same day Goudreau posted this video announcing the mission had launched, the Venezuelan government released its footage of an operation that had seemingly been thwarted by Maduro's security team.
08:36The global media covered the story like something out of a Hollywood movie. Headlines like Bay of Piglets and Keystone Coup portrayed the captured Americans as wannabe heroes,
09:03who led a botched operation that one writer described as something out of a bad Rambo movie.
09:10But according to Luke Denman's brother Mark, what you can see in the footage raised red flags.
09:18I mean, the guy was arrested in shorts and a t-shirt with his passport and driver's license on him.
09:23And I know that people like to have a lot of fun with that.
09:25But if you can kind of look at this realistically, all of these guys are guys that have gone on many combat missions with combat loads and combat gear.
09:35I don't think that he suddenly thought that going into combat in shorts, t-shirt, no shoes with his passport on him and no weapon was a good idea.
09:44It doesn't really add up.
09:46In a statement, Guaido denied any involvement and said the operation was infiltrated and financed by the Maduro administration.
09:57And a key event that occurred over a month before supports the idea that Operation Gideon was, in fact, infiltrated.
10:12On March 23rd, more than a month before the capture, Venezuela's government announced that $500,000 worth of weapons were seized en route to a training camp in Rio Hacha, Colombia.
10:34During this press conference, the Minister of Communication and Information also identified the three Americans involved in the camp.
10:43This means the Venezuelan government was not only aware of a plot to oust Maduro, but it also knew exactly who was involved.
10:52U.S. prosecutors then indicted Cliver Alcala on narcotics trafficking charges, and he turned himself in to U.S. authorities.
11:01Things started to collapse a little, and so when he's removed from the scene, you and I probably would have taken a step back and re-evaluated what we had and planned for another, you know, for Plan B or Plan C.
11:13In this case, it appears that Goudreau and others that were still associated with decided that they were going to move forward.
11:19One reason the operation continued to move forward may have been the $15 million reward offered by the U.S. government for information leading to Maduro's arrest.
11:31And so, without Guaido's support, without Alcala, and with the Maduro administration well aware of the plan, Goudreau's team continued forward, only to be captured.
11:45There are probably three possibilities, and I would say probably all three come into play.
11:52One is bad operational security known as OPSEC, right?
11:55People probably writing emails and having phone conversations and calling back home.
11:59Second is, you know, deliberate infiltrations or penetrations where you, ahead of time, move somebody to appear to be part of the group who, in reality, was sent there by the bad guys to keep a finger on the pulse.
12:12Lastly, there are those that might be victimized in this, right?
12:15You can certainly imagine where there would be one of these guys and somebody on the other end of Venezuela sends him a picture of his grandmother with a 9mm in her mouth.
12:24And these guys say, hey, you either tell us what you're up to or, or else.
12:28It's unclear when and where these men were intercepted by Venezuelan security forces, and at what stage of planning they were at.
12:37Clearly the point is that what these guys were doing was known to elements of the regime.
12:42One thing that's certain, Goudreau was not with Barry and Denman when they were captured.
12:48And meanwhile, Venezuelan state TV released footage of the two Americans.
12:54What were the objectives of the mission?
12:58Giving what the government called confessions.
13:01Obtaining specific targets and to, I think, get Maduro.
13:09Tell me about the instructions that Jordan Goudreau gave to you.
13:16The only instructions that I received from Jordan was to ensure that we took control of the airport for a safe passage for Maduro.
13:31What we're calling a confession video, I mean, we're acting like this is somebody that was read their Miranda rights.
13:37I don't think those confession videos are their own words.
13:40They're kind of being prompted, they're heavily edited, being held in some unknown environment and reading off a script, essentially, on what it is they're confessing to.
13:49My responsibilities to Silvercore are written in a contract.
13:53The so-called confession videos released by Maduro's government also feature a document with Guaido's name on it.
14:01Signed by Juan Guaido, Jordan Goudreau, and Juan Rendon.
14:13But Rendon maintains that he only signed an exploratory agreement and questions the validity of Guaido's signature on the document shown.
14:22Who commands Jordan?
14:24President Donald Trump.
14:26From what he understood, this was a U.S. government-backed operation.
14:30His very trusted friend brought him in on it.
14:36It was for a cause he believed in.
14:38Although Luke Denman may have believed the mission had the support of the U.S. government, the State Department flatly denies it.
14:46There was no U.S. government direct involvement in this operation.
14:52If we'd have been involved, it would have gone differently.
14:55Trump also disavowed any U.S. involvement in the plot.
14:59We just heard about it.
15:01But whatever it is, we'll let you know.
15:03But it has nothing to do with our government.
15:05Amid all of this, Mark Denman says it has become almost impossible to hire legal support for his brother,
15:13since the United States doesn't recognize Maduro's government as legitimate.
15:18I'm supposed to work through the legal process.
15:21However, because of the situation in Venezuela, there is no legal process to work through.
15:25So that's the catch-22 of it.
15:27That process doesn't exist.
15:29And how are they lawfully detained by a government you don't recognize?
15:33Why did you train irregular groups as a special force to invade Venezuela?
15:41I believe that it was helping their cause.
15:48Luke is a strong guy.
15:49He's mentally strong.
15:50He's physically strong.
15:51He's been through training for exactly this kind of thing.
15:54And we're confident that he can handle what he's going through.
15:58And we're doing everything we can to get him back.
16:01This interview was recorded on June 15th.
16:06On August 8th, his brother Luke and Aaron Berry were sentenced to 20 years in prison.
16:12In a statement to Business Insider, the U.S. State Department said,
16:16We are aware of reports of the continued detention of two U.S. citizens in Venezuela and are in contact with their families.
16:25In the meantime, Alcala remains in U.S. custody and is reportedly cooperating with authorities.
16:31A federal investigation is looking into Goudreau on suspicion of arms trafficking.
16:37And Goudreau is also wanted in Colombia.
16:40He did not respond to Business Insider's requests for comment.
16:43And on September 3rd, Colombian authorities announced the arrest of four Venezuelan nationals.
16:52On allegations, they conspired to plan the operation.
16:56With President Ivan Duque noting the allegations that Maduro financed it.
17:03If that's true, these events in May on the Venezuelan coast could have been orchestrated by Maduro's regime.
17:10Building a narrative that tightens his grip on Venezuela.
17:16And Denman and Berry may have just been pawns in all of it.
17:20So that was the story as best as we could understand it back in 2020.
17:25Since then, there have been some major updates regarding the key players that we just learned about.
17:30The biggest news is that in December of 2023, the two imprisoned former Green Berets, Aaron Berry and Luke Denman,
17:37were freed in a prisoner swap facilitated by the Biden administration.
17:41I reached out to Luke's brother, Mark, who we spoke to for the original story, but he has not responded.
17:46Jordan Goudreau resurfaced in the years following the fallout of Operation Gideon.
17:51Thanks for having me, Steve.
17:52Doing podcasts and TV interviews.
17:54In October of 2025, the FBI announced that Goudreau is wanted for failing to appear in a Florida court for a hearing on weapons related charges, among others.
18:04This week, I reached out to Goudreau, DMing him on his ex account, but he has not gotten back to me.
18:10Juan Guaido, previously recognized by the U.S. government as the legitimate president of Venezuela, left his position in 2023 and has since reportedly been living in exile in Florida.
18:21In an interview with CBS News, Guaido said Maduro's capture represents long-awaited justice for Venezuelans.
18:28And Clever Alcala, who reportedly planned the operation with Goudreau, is currently serving a sentence of 260 months for providing support to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known as FARC.
18:41As for Nicolas Maduro, he's currently in a Brooklyn jail awaiting the next court hearing in his drug trafficking and weapons case.
18:48Maduro pleaded not guilty to all charges.
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