US offered Maduro's pilot reward for diverting Venezuelan president's plane to arrest dictator - AP
Kyiv • UNN
A US federal agent offered Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro's personal pilot to secretly divert his plane to a location where US special services could arrest him. The pilot was promised a reward for this, but he refused.
A US federal agent offered the personal pilot of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro to secretly divert his plane to a location where US special services could arrest him. The pilot was promised a reward for this. This was reported by Associated Press, citing several unnamed current and former American officials, as well as one of the Venezuelan leader's opponents, UNN reports.
Details
The publication also reviewed and confirmed correspondence between the agent and the pilot. Thus, a US Department of Homeland Security agent made the offer to Venezuelan Air Force Colonel Bitner Villegas during a secret meeting in an airport hangar in the Dominican Republic.
The conversation was tense, and the pilot evaded answering, although he did give the agent, Edwin Lopez, his cell phone number — a sign that he might be interested in helping the US government.
It is indicated that over the next 16 months, the American agent maintained contact with the pilot through encrypted messengers, even after his resignation. According to media sources, the story "has all the hallmarks of a spy thriller."
The operation began in April 2024 during Joe Biden's presidency, when an informant with information about the planes used by Maduro contacted the US embassy in the Dominican Republic. Lopez, a former US Army Ranger, was authorized to investigate and contacted Villegas, the personal pilot of the Venezuelan president.
When the conversation ended, Lopez made his offer: in exchange for secretly transporting Maduro to the US, the pilot would become very rich and loved by millions of his compatriots. The meeting place could be chosen by the pilot: the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, or a US military base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
After this failure, Lopez continued to write to him, sending links to US Department of Justice press releases about a $50 million reward for Maduro's arrest. Eventually, Villegas blocked the agent, accusing him of cowardice, writing: "We Venezuelans are made of a different cloth. We are not traitors."
Subsequently, Maduro's opponents tried to intimidate him by publicly hinting at Villegas's possible betrayal. American politician Marshall Billingslea congratulated the pilot on his birthday on social network X, publishing his photo taken during a meeting with Lopez.
A few minutes after that, one of Maduro's presidential planes unexpectedly returned to Caracas. Social media users speculated that the pilot had been detained. However, a few days later, Villegas appeared on state television next to the head of the country's Interior Ministry, Diosdado Cabello, who called him an "unwavering patriot."
Recall
Earlier, Venezuela announced the detention of CIA agents, accusing them of preparing a "false flag attack" to provoke a war with the United States. President Nicolas Maduro's statement came against the backdrop of the deployment of the American destroyer USS Gravely near Venezuela.
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