CARACAS (Reuters) - A
Venezuelan government official on Thursday called former White House national security adviser John Bolton “crazy” after his admission this week that he had tried to plot foreign coups, including backing an unsuccessful bid to oust socialist President Nicolas Maduro.
Earlier this week, Bolton said in the interview with CNN that he had helped plan coups d’etat. He did not go into detail but mentioned Venezuela, where the United States supported opposition leader Juan Guaido’s failed bid to oust President Nicolas Maduro in 2019.
Jorge Rodriguez, head of Venezuela’s government-controlled Congress, responded to Bolton’s feedback throughout a congressional session, saying that the United States had been stirring unrest.“What was in the mind of this crazy John Bolton was that the violence would accelerate so that they could have an excuse for the invasion… a military invasion in Venezuela,” he stated. Venezuela’s Communication and Information Ministry didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
In 2019, as former U.S. President Donald Trump’s national security advisor, Bolton publicly supported the Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó who had requested the country’s military to help him overthrow the government of Nicolás Maduro.
It happened on April 30, 2019, when Guaidó, his political mentor Leopoldo Lopez, and some Venezuelan army officials assembled outside a military base calling for the Venezuelan Army’s top brass to remove Maduro from power.
The U.S.-backed plot, however, was thwarted and Maduro remained in power, despite the US insisting on formally recognizing Guaidó as the country’s legitimate leader.
The United States has a long history of carrying out coups in other countries. Still, usually, the officials of the country never openly admit their role in them.