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Maduro said that both Spaniards “were captured and that they have been convicted, confessed and have full proof of their actions.
Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro has described the two detained Spaniards as “terrorists,” linking them to Spain ‘s National Intelligence Center (CNI) for their alleged involvement in a destabilizing operation against his government.
In his weekly program ‘Con Maduro +’, broadcast on state channel VTV, the head of state said that the two citizens of the European country are “undercover agents” of the CNI, and dismissed the statements of the parents of the Spaniards that they were in Venezuela as tourists, after having visited Colombia.
Maduro said that both Spaniards “were captured and have been convicted, confessed and have full proof of the actions they carried out inside Venezuela to kill people, plant bombs, etc.”
“Now it turns out that they were good guys, tourists, who were out for a walk and were captured,” said Maduro, who said, without providing evidence, that “it is very striking” that “the Spanish CNI is involved in operations against Venezuela.”
For his part, Venezuelan Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello said that the CNI, despite being attached to the Spanish Ministry of Defense, is a “totally autonomous entity” that “carries out operations throughout the world in compliance with the instructions given by the CIA (Central Intelligence Agency).”
The suspects are Andrés Martínez Adasme and José María Basoa Valdovinos, aged 32 and 35, respectively, who were captured in Puerto Ayacucho, Amazonas state (south), on whose phones, according to the Venezuelan government, authorities found conversations where they asked “how to buy explosives” and “contact groups that would like to do some special work.”
He also denied that the two detainees were part of the Spanish CNI, as the Venezuelan government claimed, or that they belonged to any other state body.
According to their families, both were in Venezuela as tourists. On Monday, September 9, after losing track of them, they reported their disappearance on social media and to the police. EFE