Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on Friday said that authorities captured a US spy targeting a pair of refineries on the north Caribbean coast as the nation once wealthy from oil is gripped by a deep gasoline shortage.
The spy was a US Marine who had served as a CIA operative in Iraq, Maduro said.
He gave no identity or other immediate proof to support the claim, saying that more details would follow, such as photographs and video.
Photo: Reuters
The suspect was captured on Thursday while possessing specialized weapons and a large sum of US dollars, Maduro said, adding that the man was being interrogated about his activities around the Amuay and Cardon refineries in Falcon State.
Maduro, an adversary of the US, also said that Venezuelan authorities had dismantled a plot on Wednesday that was aimed at blowing up a third refinery, El Palito, in Carabobo State.
He urged the nation’s oil workers to be on alert for more attacks.
“The gringo empire wants revenge against Venezuela,” he said. “It wants to prevent Venezuela from producing all petroleum products, gasoline.”
Oil once made Venezuela a wealthy nation, but critics of Maduro say two decades of socialist rule have left it near ruin.
Its dilapidated oil fields and refineries barely produce, and the nation today relies on imports from Iran, another US foe.
A second, deep scarcity of gasoline struck in the past few days, frustrating drivers stuck in lines for hours and days to fuel up, even in the capital, Caracas.
Analysts have said the next three Iranian ships hauling fuel would not arrive for weeks.
While Venezuela’s broken oil industry leaves drivers stranded, stiff US sanctions have also blocked Maduro from importing gasoline.
If Maduro’s claim of netting a US citizen prove correct, the suspect would join two ex-Green Beret soldiers jailed in Venezuela for allegedly participating in a failed attempt to overthrow the socialist leader.
The two former US special forces soldiers were arrested in early May among more than 80 rebel Venezuelan fighters who staged a failed beach attack called Operation Gideon aimed at arresting Maduro.
The ex-Green Berets — Luke Denman and Airan Berry — have been sentenced to 20 years in prison.
Authorities have said that the two men confessed to being part of the plot.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not