A negotiation for an escape to Cuba that ended with "cell phones off"

Armored vehicles advancing on the people / afp

CARACAS

Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro said yesterday that US President Donald Trump was deceived when he was informed that he intended to leave the country and travel to Cuba after the military uprising led by the opposition, Juan Guaidó.

"Let me tell you (in Trump's environment) that you have been cheated and that you have cheated in turn the President of the United States, Donald, Trump, and have entered a pot of lies, a pot of intrigues that they had intended to launch against us and came back against them after a terrible defeat of the coup attempt, "said Maduro yesterday before his supporters gathered to celebrate May 1st.

The president criticized the fact that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, in his capacity as White House security advisor John Bolton, and US envoy to Venezuela Elliott Abrams, declared themselves "ready to testify" , a plane and I was going to Cuba "before the Russians" pushed "it out of the plane.

Abrams explained in an interview with foreign media that he had discovered "that many of them had turned off their cell phones".

In particular, he expressed frustration with three Chavez figures, including Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino, who reportedly negotiated with the opposition for months to turn his back on Maduro and support the Speaker of Parliament, Juan Guaidó , recognized as such. acting president for more than 50 nations. "They talked, talked and talked and, when the time came for action, they were not willing to do it," Abrams criticized.

According to Washington, the Supreme Court President (TSJ), Maikel Moreno, and the commander of the Presidential Honor Guard and the Directorate General of Military Counter-Intelligence (Dgcim), Iván Rafael Hernández Dala, also took part to these interviews.

For all this, Maduro said that "the leaders of the Venezuelan coup not only were wrong" and the nearly 40 soldiers who accompanied them, but also "to US imperialism and made him believe "that he was going to surrender".

Cuba does not have troops in Venezuela nor does it participate in security operations, but it reserves the right to cooperate in the military and intelligence fields with that country, said Carlos Fernández de Cossío, an official in charge of security. # 39; island. in my country to have more than 20,000 army and intelligence agents there. "However, protesters said they were attacked by soldiers who did not look like Venezuelans. de Cossío declared, in any event, that he could not deny the existence of intelligence cooperation.

Judicial reversal

At the same time, a district court in Columbia, DC, has rejected a Maduro government call to prevent Guaidó, the United States' interim president, from representing the country in US courts. (EFE / AP / AFP)