{"id":30738,"date":"2020-05-28T21:43:24","date_gmt":"2020-05-28T21:43:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/uncategorized\/2020\/05\/28\/ex-green-beret-flew-on-venezuelan-businessmans-plane-before-failed-maduro-coup\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T06:36:43","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T06:36:43","slug":"ex-green-beret-flew-on-venezuelan-businessmans-plane-before-failed-maduro-coup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/news\/2020\/05\/28\/ex-green-beret-flew-on-venezuelan-businessmans-plane-before-failed-maduro-coup\/","title":{"rendered":"Ex-Green Beret flew on Venezuelan businessman\u2019s plane before failed Maduro coup"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">MIAMI \u2014 It was mid-January and Jordan Goudreau was itching to get going on a secret plan to raid Venezuela and arrest President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro when the former Special Forces commando flew to the city of Barranquilla in Colombia to meet with his would-be partner in arms. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">To get there, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/news\/your-military\/2020\/05\/08\/ex-green-beret-pitched-venezuela-plot-to-colorado-investors-last-year-claiming-links-to-trump-insider-and-dc-consultants\/\" target=\"_blank\">Goudreau<\/a> and two <a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/news\/your-military\/2020\/05\/06\/heres-the-career-info-for-the-former-green-berets-involved-in-venezuela-raid-debacle\/\" target=\"_blank\">former Green Beret buddies<\/a> relied on some unusual help: a chartered flight out of Miami\u2019s Opa Locka executive airport on a plane owned by a Venezuelan businessman so close to the government of the late Hugo Ch\u00e1vez that he spent almost four years in a U.S. prison for trying to cover up clandestine cash payments to its allies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The owner of the Venezuela-registered Cessna Citation II with yellow and blue lines, identified with the tail number YV-3231, was Franklin Dur\u00e1n, according to three people familiar with the businessman\u2019s movements who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation. Dur\u00e1n over two decades has had numerous business ties with the socialist government of Venezuela, making him an odd choice to help a band of would-be-mercenaries overthrow Maduro, the handpicked successor of the late Ch\u00e1vez.<\/p>\n\n\n\t<aside class=\"smg-interstitial-link wp-block-smg-interstitial-link\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/militarytimes\/news\/your-military\/2020\/05\/12\/family-of-ex-green-beret-captured-in-venezuela-says-men-likely-believed-they-were-trying-to-liberate-the-oppressed\/\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__media\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"184\" src=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Denman1.jpg.jpg?w=300\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__image wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__content\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"smg-interstitial-link__kicker\">Related<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"smg-interstitial-link__title\">Family of ex-Green Beret captured in Venezuela says men likely believed they were trying to liberate the oppressed<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"smg-interstitial-link__excerpt\">Luke Denman&#039;s family and friends are hoping for a safe return from Venezuela.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\t\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Dur\u00e1n and his associates are now at the center of multiple investigations in the U.S., Colombia and Venezuela into how Goudreau, a combat veteran with three Bronze Stars but little knowledge of Venezuela, managed to launch a failed raid that ended with the capture and arrest of his two Special Forces colleagues. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A Caracas court on Thursday ordered Dur\u00e1n\u2019s arrest as part of its ongoing investigation into the incursion. The Supreme Court in a statement said Dur\u00e1n \u2014 who the AP learned was detained Sunday along with his brother \u2014 was suspected of crimes including treason, rebellion, conspiracy with a foreign government as well as arms trafficking and terrorism. The arrests of seven others were also ordered. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The government has yet to comment on the arrest order or explain what role Dur\u00e1n allegedly played in the conspiracy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But Dur\u00e1n\u2019s closeness to top officials had revived allegations floated by opposition leader Juan Guaid\u00f3 and U.S. officials that he was secretly working on Maduro\u2019s behalf and had co-opted \u201cOperation Gideon,\u201d the name of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/news\/your-military\/2020\/05\/01\/ex-green-beret-led-failed-attempt-to-oust-venezuelas-maduro\/\" target=_blank>Goudreau\u2019s foiled plot<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThere\u2019s financing here from the dictatorship,\u201d Guaid\u00f3 said in an interview following the raid with EVTV Miami, an online media outlet run by Venezuelan exiles. \u201cA businessman, a front man closely linked to the host of the gossip show,\u201d he said in reference to socialist party boss Diosdado Cabello, whose weekly TV program, fed by nuggets from Venezuela\u2019s vast intelligence network that he controls, first aired in March the accusations of a planned attack by Goudreau. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Maduro has claimed that Guaid\u00f3, whose aides signed a 42-page agreement last year with Goudreau in Miami outlining a plan to take control of the country, was behind last month\u2019s raid, with backing from the CIA or the Drug Enforcement Administration. However, Goudreau said he was never paid and the two sides angrily split. For its part, the Trump administration has denied it was behind the plot, with the president joking that had the U.S. been involved it would have gone very badly for Maduro. <\/p>\n\n\n\t<aside class=\"smg-interstitial-link wp-block-smg-interstitial-link\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/militarytimes\/news\/your-military\/2020\/05\/05\/us-had-nothing-to-do-with-ex-green-berets-failed-raid-in-venezuela-secdef-says\/\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__media\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" src=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/AP20124719196596.jpg.jpg?w=300\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__image wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__content\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"smg-interstitial-link__kicker\">Related<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"smg-interstitial-link__title\">US \u2018had nothing to do\u2019 with ex-Green Beret\u2019s failed raid in Venezuela, says Esper<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"smg-interstitial-link__excerpt\">\u201cThe United States government had nothing to do with what\u2019s happened in Venezuela in the last few days,\u201d Esper said.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\t\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Associated Press on May 1 first broke the story of Goudreau\u2019s bizarre plan to train a volunteer army made up of a few dozen Venezuelan military deserters at clandestine camps along the border in neighboring Colombia. They planned to attack military bases and ignite a popular uprising. Goudreau\u2019s partner, in what some opposition leaders called a suicide mission, was retired Venezuelan army Gen. Cliver Alcal\u00e1, who had been living in Barranquilla after fleeing his homeland in 2018. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Alcal\u00e1 surrendered to U.S. authorities in March after he was indicted on drug charges, just a few days after Colombian police seized a cache of weapons that the retired military officer said belonged to the rebel cadre he and Goudreau were readying to bring down Maduro. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But despite no overt U.S. support, a poorly-trained force that stood no chance against Venezuela\u2019s sizable military and indications that Maduro\u2019s spies had infiltrated the group, Goudreau nonetheless pushed ahead with his plans. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On May 3 \u2014 two days after the AP article \u2014 he appeared in a video from Florida claiming that a few dozen \u201cfreedom fighters\u201d he commanded had launched a beach raid to enter Venezuela and capture Maduro. The invaders were caught almost immediately and the embattled leader paraded on state TV the American combatants as evidence of a U.S.-backed coup attempt. The raid has been widely ridiculed on social media as the \u201cBay of Piglets,\u201d in reference to the 1961 Cuban fiasco. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Why the plan went forward remains a mystery. But much attention has now shifted to the role of Dur\u00e1n and his brother Pedro. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Both men were quietly arrested Sunday in Venezuela, although Pedro was later released, according to Edward Shohat, Franklin Dur\u00e1n\u2019s Miami-based lawyer. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The story of Goudreau\u2019s flight aboard Dur\u00e1n\u2019s plane was first reported by <a href=\"https:\/\/panampost.com\/orlando-avendano\/2020\/05\/26\/ex-green-beret-behind-venezuela-raid-traveled-to-colombia-on-private-aircraft-linked-to-chavismo\/?cn-reloaded=1\" target=_blank>the PanAm Post<\/a>, a conservative online publication run by mostly Venezuelan exiles from Miami. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">According to Colombian flight documents the PanAm Post shared with the AP, the Jan. 16 trip was chartered by Servicios Aereos Mineros (SERAMI), a for-hire airline that started in the gold-producing Venezuelan state of Bolivar. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">An aviation industry executive confirmed the authenticity of the documents and said SERAMI was used by the Dur\u00e1n brothers to charter their frequent flights between Colombia and Venezuela. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The person said Franklin Dur\u00e1n would frequently travel to Barranquilla \u2014 passenger manifests provided to the AP show he made at least four flights between the two countries between November 2019 and January 2020 \u2014 to bring back food and other supplies to Venezuela, where U.S. sanctions and years of mismanagement have stripped store shelves of many goods. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">SERAMI is partly owned by Juan Carlos Ynfante, according to two people familiar with the company. Ynfante was arrested last year in Grand Cayman island for piloting an aircraft with $135,000 in undeclared cash. Ynfante was also named as SERAMI\u2019s president in a 2008 U.S. federal forfeiture case in which a plane with the company\u2019s logo was seized in Ft. Lauderdale trying to smuggle 150 kilograms of cocaine. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In addition to Goudreau and Dur\u00e1n\u2019s two longtime pilots, passengers on the mid-January flight included Luke Denman and Airan Berry \u2014 two of the former Army veteran\u2019s colleagues from the 10th Special Forces Group in Stuttgart, Germany, where he was based before retiring from the U.S. Army in 2016. The two Texas natives have said in videotaped confessions that they believed Goudreau\u2019s company, Silvercorp USA, had been hired by Guaid\u00f3. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Its unclear why the men traveled on the plane to Colombia or if Dur\u00e1n even knew about it. Goudreau hung up when contacted by the AP on Wednesday. He did not respond to a text messages asking about the flight. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Also on the flight was Yacsy \u00c1lvarez. The would-be insurgents in the Colombian camps described the 39-year-old as a trusted aide to Alcal\u00e1 who also worked for Dur\u00e1n. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">One volunteer soldier said that when he needed to fly for meetings between Bogota and Barranquilla it was \u00c1lvarez who would purchase his tickets. On other occasions, he would electronically transfer her via Zelle, the digital payments network, small amounts of money he had collected from friends and family to feed the ragtag army. Denman, in his jailhouse statement, said it was \u00c1lvarez who drove him and Berry from Barranquilla to a rustic camp where the rebels were training. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u00c1lvarez\u2019s whereabouts are unknown. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u00c1lvarez was named in 2017 director of Industrias Venoco de Centroamerica, two years after the company was registered in Panama. The company is a subsidiary of Industrias Venoco, a once market-leading auto lubrication manufacturer that Dur\u00e1n controlled before it was nationalized by Ch\u00e1vez in 2010. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Dur\u00e1n at the time he lost Venoco was serving out a 4-year sentence in the U.S. for acting as an unregistered agent of Ch\u00e1vez. The firebrand leader had sent Dur\u00e1n to pressure businessman Alejandro Antonini, who was implicated in the so-called \u201cSuitcase Scandal\u201d when an attempt to smuggle $800,000 in cash to the 2007 campaign of former Argentine President Cristina Fernandez aboard a chartered aircraft was caught. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">During the trial, prosecutors pointed out that Dur\u00e1n used to carry a badge identifying him as a Venezuelan naval intelligence officer. The men urged their one-time friend to take the fall and stay quiet but unbeknownst to them Antonini was cooperating with the FBI and recorded their conversations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Upon Dur\u00e1n\u2019s release in 2011 and return to Venezuela, a legal battle with the Venezuelan state to reclaim Venoco ensued. Dur\u00e1n maintained a low profile while he received treatment for cancer. Eventually some of Venoco assets, including the brand name, were returned to him, including a unit in Barranquilla. His brother, going by the artistic name Pedro \u201cThe Voice,\u201d tried to develop a career singing salsa. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A woman answering the phone at the Panama-based unit listed on Venoco\u2019s website said the company is privately held and run from Barranquilla. An email sent to the Panama unit through Venoco\u2019s website went unanswered and the two phone numbers listed for the Barranquilla-based unit on Venoco\u2019s website did not work. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Dur\u00e1n was also the founder of Ruibal &amp; Dur\u00e1n, a company that used to sell bulletproof vests and other equipment to Venezuela\u2019s security forces \u2014 gear that would\u2019ve been valuable to an invading army. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He and his brother were also close to Alcal\u00e1. Photos circulating on social media show Pedro Dur\u00e1n and Alcal\u00e1 together including one where the two are sitting casually around a dining table with the army general sporting a Venoco t-shirt. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Franklin Dur\u00e1n\u2019s U.S.-based attorney on Thursday declined to discuss what, if any relationship, he had with Goudreau or to discuss the January flight. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But Dur\u00e1n appears to have never wavered in his support of the anti-imperialist revolution to which he owed his fortune. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI\u2019m a man of principles and convictions, which were put to the test when they tried to force me to accept a set-up against the institutions of Venezuela,\u201d he wrote in a public letter from his Texas prison cell in 2010. \u201cDespite all the weight of the empire\u2019s media, and having spent more than nine months in solitary confinement, I never gave up my values.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><i>Investigative researcher Randy Herschaft in New York and investigative reporter James LaPorta in Delray Beach, Florida, contributed to this report.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A former Special Forces soldier and two former Green Beret buddies took a chartered flight from Miami on a plane owned by a Venezuelan businessman now at the center of multiple investigations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":62040,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":12,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[101,8,12,26],"tags":[],"coauthors":[2966],"class_list":["post-30738","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-news-roundup","category-flashpoints","category-news","category-newsletters"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"QHHMHGH6JJH4DBH5GPOX3HBN3M","arc_canonical_url":"\/news\/your-military\/2020\/05\/28\/ex-green-beret-flew-on-venezuelan-businessmans-plane-before-failed-maduro-coup\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.0 (Yoast SEO v28.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Ex-Green Beret flew on Venezuelan businessman\u2019s plane before failed Maduro coup - Navy Times<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A former Special Forces soldier and two former Green Beret buddies took a chartered flight from Miami on a plane owned by a Venezuelan businessman now at the center of multiple investigations.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Ex-Green Beret flew on Venezuelan businessman\u2019s plane before failed Maduro coup\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A former Special Forces soldier and two former Green Beret buddies took a chartered flight from Miami on a plane owned by a Venezuelan businessman now at the center of multiple investigations.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/news\/2020\/05\/28\/ex-green-beret-flew-on-venezuelan-businessmans-plane-before-failed-maduro-coup\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Navy Times\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-05-28T21:43:24+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-08-08T06:36:43+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Joshua Goodman, The Associated Press\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Joshua Goodman, The Associated Press\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"9 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" 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