Erik Prince – the founder of the controversial private security firm Blackwater and a prominent supporter of US President Donald Trump – has been pushing to deploy a private army to help topple Venezuela’s socialist president, Nicholas Maduro, four sources with knowledge of the effort told Reuters.
PRINCE’S COUP PLANS
Over the last several months, Erik Prince – the founder of the security firm has sought investment and political support for such an operation from influential Trump supporters and wealthy Venezuelan exiles. In private meetings in the United States and Europe, Prince sketched out a plan to field up to 5,000 soldiers-for-hire on behalf of Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido, according to two sources with direct knowledge of Prince’s pitch.
One source said Prince has conducted meetings about the issue as recently as mid-April.
One of Prince’s key arguments, one source said, is that Venezuela needs what Prince calls a “dynamic event” to break the stalemate that has existed since January, when Guaido – the head of Venezuela’s National Assembly – declared Maduro’s 2018 re-election illegitimate and invoked the constitution to assume the interim presidency.
Maduro has denounced Guaido, who has been backed by most western nations, as a US puppet who is seeking to foment a coup.
BLACKWATER’S CIVILIAN MASSACRE IN IRAQ
Prince was a pioneer in private military contracting during the Iraq war, when the US government hired Blackwater primarily to provide security for State Department operations there.
In 2007, Blackwater employees shot and killed 17 Iraqi civilians at Nisour Square in Baghdad, sparking international outrage.One of the Blackwater employees involved was convicted of murder in December and three others have been convicted of manslaughter.