U.S. will use 'every tool' to secure release if any Americans held in Venezuela: Pompeo

[Eugene]

Source: Reuters

WORLD NEWS MAY 6, 2020 / 11:47 AM / UPDATED 28 MINUTES AGO

U.S. will use 'every tool' to secure release if any Americans held in Venezuela: Pompeo

Matt Spetalnick, Humeyra Pamuk
3 MIN READ

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. government will use “every tool” available to secure the return of Americans if they are being held in Venezuela, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo vowed on Wednesday, after Venezuelan officials said they had captured two U.S. “mercenaries” in a failed armed incursion.

“There was no U.S. government direct involvement in this operation,” Pompeo told reporters, echoing President Donald Trump’s remarks a day earlier. He added: “(If) we’d have been involved, it would have gone differently.”

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said on Monday that authorities there had detained a pair of U.S. citizens working with a U.S. military veteran who has claimed responsibility for the foiled incursion, launched last weekend.

Pompeo stopped short of confirming the Americans’ detention but called it a “consular matter.”

“We will start the process of trying to figure a way, if in fact these are Americans that are there, that we can figure out a path forward,” he said. “We want to get every American back. If the Maduro regime decides to hold them, we will use every tool that we have available to try and get them back.”

-snip-

Read more: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-venezuela-security-usa/u-s-will-use-every-tool-to-secure-release-if-any-americans-held-in-venezuela-pompeo-idUSKBN22I2DM

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Source: Reuters

WORLD NEWS MAY 6, 2020 / 1:33 PM / UPDATED 27 MINUTES AGO

Venezuela state TV broadcasts videos of two captured American 'mercenaries'

CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuela state television broadcast on Wednesday videos of two American “mercenaries” - Airan Berry and Luke Denman - who Venezuelan authorities captured during a failed armed incursion on Monday.

Maduro has described the operation as a plot coordinated with Washington to enter the country via the Caribbean coast and oust him, though the U.S. government has denied involvement.

Reporting by Brian Ellsworth; Editing by Angus Berwick and Franklin Paul

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-venezuela-security-videos/venezuela-state-tv-broadcasts-videos-of-two-captured-american-mercenaries-idUSKBN22I2PJ

[underpants]

1. Well, Pompeo is a tool

So there’s that.

[Squinch]

2. What are Donny Bodybags's flying monkeys doing in Venezuela?

We'll find out that this was yet another astonishingly immoral and stupid scheme from this administration.

[Judi Lynn]

3. Why were people who admit they were trying to at the least, violently overthrow the government?

Venezuela has to return the intended assassins?

As someone has said already, even if they fail, a piece of #### like Trump will still use it to manufacture a stupid reason to invade.

[Voltaire2]

4. of course.

the idiocy and malevolence of this administration is unbounded.