Operation Gideon (2020)

This article uses Spanish naming customs: the paternal surname is first, and the maternal surname is second.

Operation Gideon
Part of the crisis in Venezuela and the Venezuelan presidential crisis
Top to bottom, left to right: Venezuelan authorities intercepting a boat; Nicolás Maduro holding the US passports of captured former Green Berets; SEBIN agents displaying captured dissidents
Date 3–4 May 2020 Location Venezuela Macuto, Vargas Chuao, Aragua Action Attempt to remove Nicolás Maduro and other high-level figures from power Result Plot infiltrated and foiled by Maduro administration Maduro administration begins Bolivarian Shield military response Arrest warrants issued by the Maduro administration, including for Jordan Goudreau, J. J. Rendón and Sergio Vergara, on 8 May[1][2] Jordan Goudreau investigated by US federal authorities[3]
Belligerents
Venezuela military and intelligence National Bolivarian Armed Forces of Venezuela Bolivarian Intelligence Service	Venezuelan dissidents Active Coalition of the Venezuelan International Reserve (CARIVE) American contractors Silvercorp USA
Commanders and leaders
Nicolás Maduro Diosdado Cabello Vladimir Padrino López Néstor Reverol	Jordan Goudreau Clíver Antonio Alcalá Cordones Javier Enrique Nieto Quintero Roberto Levid Colina Ibarra  † Antonio Sequea Torres (POW)
Strength
Unknown	300–800 (planned)[4][5] ~60 (from sea)[6][7]
Casualties and losses
None	6 killed[8][9][10] 91 captured (including 2 American mercenaries)[11]

Operation Gideon (Spanish: Operación Gedeón) was an unsuccessful attempt by the Active Coalition of the Venezuelan International Reserve, Venezuelan dissidents, and a private security firm, Jordan Goudreau's Silvercorp USA, to infiltrate Venezuela by sea and remove Nicolás Maduro from power. The plan executed from 3 to 4 May 2020 was for expatriate Venezuelan former military personnel living in Colombia to enter the country by boat at Macuto, take control of an airfield, capture Maduro and other high-level figures in his administration, and expel them from the country.

A landing attempt to initiate the operation went forward despite its impracticality. Two boats were launched from eastern Colombia toward the Caribbean coast of Venezuela north of Caracas, carrying approximately 60 Venezuelan dissidents and two American former Green Berets employed as mercenaries by Silvercorp. Both boats were intercepted before they reached land. At least six Venezuelan dissidents in the first boat were killed, and all but four of the invaders were captured during the attempted landing or subsequent search operations, including the two Americans from the second boat, whose interrogations were broadcast on state television.

Venezuelan intelligence agencies and the Associated Press (AP) had prior knowledge of the operation. Commentators and observers described the operation as amateurish, underfunded, poorly organized, impossible, and a suicide mission, and divergent narratives led to questions about how the plot unfolded. Sources criticized the poor planning and execution, alternating between characterizing the operation as an attempted invasion, infiltration, raid, ambush, assassination or coup. Maduro and his representatives described the attacking force as terrorists who planned to kill him in a plot coordinated by Colombia and the United States. Guaidó and some supporters described the event as a false flag orchestrated by Maduro, and Goudreau described the team as freedom fighters seeking to restore democracy.