The government of Venezuelan President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro said Sunday that his country\u2019s security forces captured a group of mercenaries aligned with the US Central Intelligence Agency, less than two weeks after President Donald Trump confirmed his authorization of covert CIA action against the South American nation.<\/p>\n
Venezuela \u201creports that it has captured a mercenary group with direct information from the US intelligence agency, CIA, being able to determine that a false-flag attack is underway from waters bordering Trinidad and Tobago, or from Trinidad or Venezuelan territory itself,\u201d the Venezuelan government said in a statement<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cThis planned action perfectly evokes the provocation of the Battleship Maine<\/em> and the Gulf of Tonkin, which gave rise to the war against Spain to seize Cuba in 1898 and allowed the US Congress to authorize involvement in an eternal war against Vietnam in 1964, from which they emerged defeated by the Vietnamese people after facing incalculable destruction and regrettable human loss,\u201d the statement continues.<\/p>\n \u201cThe government of Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar has renounced the sovereignty of Trinidad and Tobago to act as a military colony subordinate to US hegemonic interests, turning its territory into a US aircraft carrier for war throughout the Caribbean against Venezuela, Colombia, and all of South America,\u201d Caracas asserted.<\/p>\n