Launching a disastrous operation into Venezuela, apparently without the approval of interim Venezuelan President Juan Guaido or the U.S. government, Jordan Goudreau has made a terrible mistake.
A former U.S. Army Green Beret who now heads up a security firm in Florida, Goudreau on Sunday released a video alongside a former Venezuelan military officer announcing “Operation Gideon.” The plan was to liberate Venezuela and capture the illegal occupier of the presidency, Nicolas Maduro.
Why now?
An Associated Press report last Friday identified Goudreau’s existing effort to undermine Maduro’s regime and the challenges it faced. Goudreau appears to have viewed that report as a reason to move up his action.
But the consequences have been disastrous.
Most of Goudreau’s largely Venezuelan force have been captured or killed, with two of Goudreau’s American mercenaries being paraded on state television. Maduro is now claiming, likely without evidence, that Guaido paid Goudreau’s team with $200 million from Venezuelan oil sales. This fits with a steadily escalating pressure campaign against Guaido.
To be clear, this shambles makes even the disastrous 1961 Bay of Pigs operation in Cuba look impressive.
Most of Goudreau’s team appear to have been caught at sea or very soon after landing. The remainder of his team has now lost the element of surprise and likely faces imminent capture by Maduro’s forces.
The key question: Why did Goudreau authorize this action in the first place?
Perhaps it was in pursuit of the $15 million U.S. government bounty on Maduro’s head? Regardless, it beggars belief that Goudreau ever thought this mission could succeed. After all, Maduro retains the support of the armed forces and is well protected by a joint Cuban-Venezuelan protection team. Cuba’s capable DI intelligence service also retains a significant operational presence in Maduro’s favor, supporting him with boutique intelligence-gathering capabilities. This activity is especially valuable in the areas of counterintelligence and signal intercept, two concerns that should have been foremost on Goudreau’s mind. Even the most generous assessment here would surely have suggested Operation Gideon was doomed to disaster.
But we are where we are. Maduro has scored a powerful propaganda victory, Guaido has been weakened by the association (even if invented) that he is an American puppet, and American citizens are at the regime’s mercy. The slowly escalating U.S. campaign to undermine Maduro is also jeopardized.
Goudreau’s whereabouts are unknown, but he is telling the media that Washington must secure his men’s release. While the State Department has an obligation to protect U.S. citizens, Goudreau does not appear to understand the situation he has put the Trump administration in. If it pushes too hard, it risks lending credence to Maduro’s claim that this is a U.S. government-sanctioned operation. If it doesn’t push at all, Maduro may torture or execute the Americans.
Goudreau has a lot of questions to answer.
