Maduro says Venezuela captures U.S. citizens linked to espionage

[Eugene]

Source: Reuters

Maduro says Venezuela captures U.S. citizens linked to espionage

BY DIEGO ORE AND BRIAN ELLSWORTH
CARACAS Sat Feb 28, 2015 7:50pm EST

(Reuters) - Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said on Saturday his government had captured Americans, including a pilot, involved in espionage activities and said U.S. citizens in the future will have to seek visas to come to the OPEC nation.

Speaking during a rally, he said his government will prohibit some U.S. officials from entering Venezuela in retaliation for a similar measure by the government of President Barack Obama against a group of Venezuelan public officials.

"We have captured some U.S. citizens in undercover activities, espionage, trying to win over people in towns along the Venezuelan coast," he said, adding one was a U.S. pilot taken in the convulsed border state of Tachira.

"In Tachira we captured a pilot of a U.S. plane (who is) of Latin origin (carrying) all kinds of documentation," Maduro said, without offering details.

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Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/03/01/us-venezuela-usa-idUSKBN0LX10J20150301

[99th_Monkey]

1. Well, it wouldn't be the first time

The Revolution Will Not Be Televised
The Revolution Will Not Be Televised (Spanish: La revolución no será transmitida), also known as Chávez: Inside the Coup, is a 2003 documentary focusing on events in Venezuela leading up to and during the April 2002 coup d'état attempt, which saw President Hugo Chávez removed from office for two days. With particular emphasis on the role played by Venezuela's private media, the film examines several key incidents: the protest march and subsequent violence that provided the impetus for Chávez's ousting; the opposition's formation of an interim government headed by business leader Pedro Carmona; and the Carmona administration's collapse, which paved the way for Chávez's return. The Revolution Will Not Be Televised was directed by Irish filmmakers Kim Bartley and Donnacha Ó Briain. Given direct access to Chávez, the filmmakers intended to make a fly-on-the-wall biography of the president. They spent seven months filming in Venezuela, following Chávez and his staff and interviewing ordinary citizens. As the coup unfolded on 11 April, Bartley and Ó Briain filmed on the streets of the capital, Caracas, capturing footage of protesters and the erupting violence. Later, they filmed many of the political upheavals inside Miraflores, the presidential palace.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Revolution_Will_Not_Be_Televised_(film)

2002 Venezuelan coup d'état attempt
In 2002, Washington is claimed to have approved and supported a coup against the Venezuelan government. Senior officials, including Special Envoy to Latin America Otto Reich and convicted Iran-contra figure and George W. Bush "democracy 'czar'" Elliott Abrams, were allegedly part of the plot.[103] Top coup plotters, including Pedro Carmona, the man installed during the coup as the new president, began visits to the White House months before the coup and continued until weeks before the putsch. The plotters were received at the White House by the man President George W. Bush tasked to be his key policy-maker for Latin America, Special Envoy Otto Reich.[103] It has been stated by Rodrigo Guevara of a Spanish language blog that Reich was the U.S. mastermind of the coup.[104][better source needed]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Covert_United_States_foreign_regime_change_actions