Jordan Goudreau, the chief executive of Silvercorp USA, speaks about his company during a school safety conference in Orlando in 2018. (Cassi Alexandra/The Washington Post)
Jordan Goudreau, mercenary leader of the failed Operation Gideon (in Spanish, Operacion Operación Gedeón) attempted coup and assassination plot against the Bolivarian government of Venezuela in 2020, recently took to digital platforms to criticize Lester Toledo, co-founder of the Popular Will (VP) “party.” The feud between the two opposition members erupted from accusations Goudreau made against leading authorities of the aforementioned group.
Through his X account, Goudreau, a U.S. citizen, accused Toledo, as well as Juan Guaidó and Leopoldo López of being involved in the irregular handling of funds from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The allegation was rejected by Toledo, a former political leader from the state of Zulia.
Responding to Toledo’s comments, Goudreau indicated that he has evidence to verify his accusations and that the “real investigation is just beginning.” He also claimed to have recordings of conversations with Toledo and other VP members. Toledo, in turn, called Goudreau “screwed,” assuring that he will probably face years in prison “precisely for inventing crazy things.”
Goudreau, a former US Army officer, hinted that Toledo is being protected by the US government by saying, “Nobody investigated you, Lester. Biden, the CIA and the FBI protected you.” He added that “the reality is that Guaidó and his friend Leopoldo López attended IV Division schools in the US using USAID, which is a CIA (front) company. Guaidó used the company of his friend, Lester Toledo, to launder 1.6 billion dollars. The Department of Justice and the FBI know this. Guaidó and Leopoldo are protected.”
Gideon: Accusations in all directions
A controversial figure, Goudreau has revealed —or confirmed— some incidents of the “maximum pressure” campaign targeted against Venezuela during the first Trump administration. In particular, he highlighted the fraudulent handling of US funds and Venezuelan assets by VP, among other members of the Venezuelan extremist opposition.
Goudreau was arrested last July (2024) in New York on federal charges of arms smuggling. His lawyers claim that he had authorization from the US Executive Branch, during the previous Trump administration, to organize and carry out a military incursion into Venezuela in 2020. The objective of the operation was to depose Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. The same ex-military man also declared that during the same year the FBI wanted him disappear to erase traces of his relationship with the Republican president who now occupies the White House.
In recent days, Goudreau was interviewed by the Colombia’s La W Radio, in which he revealed the quarrels between Guaidó, López and Toledo over financing from the United States. He said that Operation Gideon failed because it had no military support and that “its main problem was that the leaders of VP and the US agencies had different interests.”
Goudreau added that, at the time, Trump had very powerful enemies within the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) who prevented the operation so that he could not celebrate the overthrow of the Bolivarian Revolutionary Government. He also revealed tensions between Guaidó and former general Clíver Alcalá Cordones, as well as López’s appetite to seize power.
On the other hand, last weekend, Juvenal Sequea and Rayder Russo, former officials of the Bolivarian National Guard detained in Colombia, confirmed the participation of the former president of Colombia, Iván Duque, and members of his government, in Operation Gideon. “In all the actions we undertook in Riohacha, we were clear that the Colombian government was aware of what was happening. The police went through the places and spoke with them,” said Sequea, according to La W Radio.
Russo confessed that, following a meeting with Duque, coordination was initiated with the National Intelligence Directorate (DNI) of Colombia. He also indicated that, days before the incursion, relations with the army in the Guajira camp had already been developed.
Reformatting USAID or reorganization of interference against Venezuela?
The plot described by Goudreau reveals a part of the intricate intersections between money, US officials and agencies involved in the “revolving doors” of politics, special interest groups and the geopolitics of Washington. It also shows the high levels of subordination that extremist opposition actors maintain with foreign entities, with which they have established lucrative business initiatives in the name of “human rights” and the “freedom of Venezuela.”
These accusations indicate a greater distance between the ultra-right leadership and the current Trump administration. It should be noted that, in his flurry of accusations, Goudreau involves the tycoon president but admits that his intentions were sabotaged by internal disputes within US government bureaucracy.
It is possible that these elements will continue to serve the interests of the new US government, especially Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Their efforts to reformat USAID has moved forward. By demonstrating the failures and corruption schemes within the agency, they are able to whitewash their public image, as well as accelerate the organizational and narrative conditions to relaunch interventionist actions with greater efficiency. Let’s be clear. This is not a “crusade against corruption.” Instead, the US government seeks to carry on its interventionist and regime change policies with greater precision and fewer “distracting elements.” Additionally, helping to minimize internal disputes within the US political ruling class depends on a reordering of the flow of “humanitarian” funds because the model managed up until this point has not halted the decline of US influence in international geopolitics.
Expectations remain high regarding the relationship between the current tenant of the White House and Venezuela’s extreme-right opposition. Special mention should be given to Rubio, who has sponsored the latter group to obsessive levels.
However, those additional supporters of the “Guaidó Plan”, such as María Corina Machado, Antonio Ledezma and Julio Borges, among others, are bound to receive a new blow to their credibility.
Meanwhile, internal divisions within the Venezuelan opposition continues. While the extremist sector accuses other opponents of being “scorpions” for recognizing the national government, those so-called “scorpions” accuse the extremist sector of enriching themselves with funds from US taxpayers and Venezuelan assets that were illegally seized by the first Trump administration.
Goudreau’s revelations are also a blow to the political aspiration of former presidential candidate Edmundo González Urrutia, the supposed new Venezuelan head of state, according to Trump. Until now, the real estate magnate has been rather cautious and hesitant to express support for the anti-Chavismo sector. Faced with so much scandals, he has avoided repeating support for a “parallel” government in Venezuela’s case.
Supporters of Machado and González maintain their objective of forcing the abstention of all opposition organizations in the upcoming electoral processes. Confronted by this disastrous scenario, where corruption of USAID funds is added to the serious incriminations made by Goudreau, it is difficult to impose the line of abstention given the labyrinth of accusations and denunciations against the Venezuelan opposition.
News of Gideon’s resounding failure reappears at the worst political moment, deepening the emotional decline, the scepticism around the Machado and González “strategy” and accentuating the battle for the narrative between participating or abstaining in the upcoming April elections. Goudreau’s comments have a significant impact on Venezuela’s extreme right sector. They facilitate the game moderates will play, establishing themselves as a better option compared to the deep moral crisis represented by the extremists who continue to accumulate bad press, hampering their ability to strike back.
This article has been translated from Spanish by Kawsachun News. Read the original in Misión Verdad.
