The US tried to recruit Nicolás Maduro’s pilot to divert his plane and hand over the president of Venezuela

The United States tried to recruit the chief pilot of Nicolas Maduro to divert your plane and facilitate his capture, according to what the agency announced this Tuesday Associated Press. However, the intelligence operation, which began during the presidency of Joe Bidenwas not successful.

The federal agent Edwin Lopezattached to the United States Embassy in the Dominican Republic, maintained telephone contact through WhatsApp and Telegram with the Venezuelan general Bitner Villegasin charge of piloting the Chavista leader’s aircraft.

He was trying to persuade him to carry out the operation in exchange for a financial reward of $50 million, the price that the United States Department of Justice placed on the head of the Venezuelan president last August.

The operation began to roll, always according to Associated Pressin April 2024, when an informant contacted López to warn him that two planes used by Maduro and other names of the regime, such as the vice president Delcy Rodriguezwere being repaired in the Dominican Republic.

US authorities identified the Dassault Falcon 2000EX aircraft and a Dassault Falcon 900EX at the La Isabela executive airport in the capital, Santo Domingo. They confiscated them in February of last year alleging the use of the devices in activities subject to sanctions by the Treasury Department.

Maduro then denounced the “blatant theft” of the planes and his chancellor, Yvan Gilaccused the Biden Administration of having committed “a repeat criminal practice, which cannot be classified as anything other than piracy.”

Inside one of those planes—an “intelligence treasure,” as the Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, defined them in September—was Villegas. López already knew him, but he questioned him pretending to be unaware of his ties to Maduro. In that meeting, he maintains Associated PressVillegas did not commit to executing the plan, but shared his phone number with the federal agent.

López retired in July, but contacted Villegas again just a month later to tell him that the time had come for him to become “Venezuela’s hero.” Villegas did not respond.

In September, López tried his luck again, but Villegas reacted angrily. “We Venezuelans are made of different wood. The last thing we are is traitors,” he responded. López insisted a third time, and Villegas ended up blocking him, according to the reconstruction of the events he describes. Associated Press.

It was just after his refusal that a campaign began on social networks to destabilize the colonel of the Venezuelan Air Force, in charge of transporting Maduro on his official trips to Iran, Cuba or Russia.

On September 18, the former US official Marshall Billingslea He published a sarcastic birthday greeting to Villegas on the social network X. The message was accompanied by several photos that could suggest that the pilot may have collaborated with the United States.

The publication, which exceeded three million views, fueled rumors in Venezuela that Villegas had been interrogated or even detained by the United States.

A few days later, however, the pilot reappeared on ‘With the hammer giving’, the television program Diosdado HairMinister of the Interior and Maduro’s right-hand man, who joked about the possibility that the Bolivarian National Armed Forces (FANB) could be bought. While Cabello spoke, Villegas remained silent, his fist raised in loyalty.