‘I’ve never seen a contract for toppling a govt’: Venezuelan VP decries Guaido’s hiring of US mercenaries to Rafael Correa

A leaked multimillion-dollar deal between an opposition figurehead and a US mercenary firm to oust a leader is quite a piece of work, as it’s odd to see a contract for a coup, Venezuela’s VP told Rafael Correa on RT.

“This invasion contract, signed by Jordan Goudreau, the head of a US private military company and Juan Guaido, is just a disgrace,” Delcy Rodriguez, the vice president of Venezuela, said while talking to Ecuador’s former president, Rafael Correa, on his show ‘Conversation with Correa’ on RT Spanish.

Rodriguez was referring to an agreement to “capture, detain or remove” the current president, Nicolas Maduro, in exchange for a $212.9-million reward. Leaked by the Washington Post, the contract carefully discusses tactical details, including which gear to use and who to treat as legitimate targets.

It bears what appear to be signatures of Guaido’s functionaries and Goudreau, the head of the Florida-based Silvercorp private military company and retired Green Beret. This is what makes the document so bizarre, Rodriguez told Correa.

I have never seen anyone trying to overthrow the constitutional government through a contract.

Guaido himself has denied any involvement in the failed attempt to overthrow Maduro, and called the leak “fake.” But as one of the plotters told Venezuelan security services during interrogation, the US-backed opposition leader had a meeting with Goudreau at the White House earlier in March. The conversation, the detainee revealed, included plans to oust Maduro.

The contract also allowed anyone deemed to be “armed and violent colectivos” – a derogatory term used for working-class people, including trade unionists and pro-government protesters – to be targeted. So, the deal allowed “carnage against Venezuelan people” and gave the green light to “crimes against humanity,” according to Rodriguez.

“When you read this… I’m a lawyer, and when I read this contract, I could never have imagined that such an unlawful [agreement] that so blatantly violates human rights could be given legal force,” she said.

Silvercorp and its involvement in the coup came to light earlier this month when a group of commandos – among them two US mercenaries – landed on a resort coast in Venezuela. They were met by local security forces, who killed eight of them.

The survivors of the failed raid were arrested and appeared on local television, with one confessing in an interrogation tape to plotting to overthrow Maduro and bring him to the US.