CARACAS, Aug 27 – Interior Minister Miguel Rodriguez Torres said that two Colombians were arrested and they have confessed to plotting to assassinate President Nicolas Maduro.
Rodriguez told a news conference that the two suspects, Victor Johan Gueche Mosquera, 22, and Erick Leonardo Huertas Rios, 18, are members of a criminal gang operating out of Colombia. They entered Venezuela illegally on Aug 13.
“They have been discovered, we have enough evidence on how they entered, where they entered, how much they were paid and the mission they were on,” said Rodriguez.
Rodriguez then detailed the information gathered on the two suspects, saying they belonged to a gang named after its ringleader Oscar Alcantara Gonzalez, who goes by the name Gancho Mosco, and who is serving a sentence for recruiting underage delinquents to carry out homicides and drug trafficking.
According to Rodriguez, Alcantara’s contact in Venezuela, identified as Alejandro Caicedo, helped the two suspects travel from Colombia’s capital Bogota to the border city of Cucuta. From there, they entered Venezuela through southwest Tachira and traveled by land to Valencia, capital of north central Carabobo state.
In Valencia, a Venezuelan man called Carlos Salcedo helped them check into a hotel along the Pan-American Highway.
“We succeeded in locating them on the 15th (of August) and we succeeded in capturing them at the Guaracarumbo Hotel, on the Pan-American Highway that links Aragua state, through Mirada (state), to Caracas,” Rodriguez said.
At the time of their arrest, the minister said, the two Colombians had two laser-sight rifles and ammunition, bags with 10 Venezuelan army uniforms and a photo of President Maduro and the president of the National Assembly, Diosdado Cabello.
Both of the suspects confessed in interrogations that they were under orders to kill President Maduro, Rodriguez said.
According to Venezuelan authorities, Gueche and Huertas are part of a 10-member conspiracy, so the search will continue for the others and for Venezuelan Carlos Salcedo.
“We will continue to investigate and dig deeper to safeguard the life of Venezuelan officials and to dismantle this international conspiracy that intends, through violent means, to destabilise the country,” said Rodriguez.
– BERNAMA
