Two former US military personnel, Luke Denman and Airan Berry, were sentenced to 20 years in prison in Venezuela for participating in an illegal incursion into the Venezuelan State, in an operation called GEDEÓN in May 2020. From that moment on the Government of Venezuela classified them as “mercenaries” .
According to first-hand information provided by the Prosecutor General de Venezuela , Tarek William Saab , on his Twitter account , during the preliminary hearing the defendants, US citizens Luke Denman and Airan Berry confessed “their responsibility for the facts, “and added that” these men admitted to having committed crimes of conspiracy, association, illicit trafficking in weapons of war and terrorism, “crimes punishable by the penal code of Venezuela .
Mark Denman , brother of one of the ex-military Venezuela detainees , offered us an interview and clarified what their current situation is, what actions to take to achieve their release and if finally, the rumors that run at speed to light of if it could be exchanged for the diplomat Alex Saab , who is in had in the US under a single charge of “Conspiracy to launder money” to the government of that country, they are true.
How did you find out that your brother, Luke Denman was detained in Venezuela?
Well, when I spoke to him before this and he told me who was in Colombia. Obviously, he made me curious and I asked him what he was doing in Colombia. The last time I spoke to him he told me that he was getting some certifications for courses and underwater skills like welding underwater, etc. So well, he told me that he was in Colombia training some Venezuelans. Of course I was curious to know more and he told me: “ It is a mission supported by the USA . supporting the legitimate president of Venezuela, Juan Guaidó , who was recognized by the United States “.
I have always been very skeptical about these types of contracts. I said, you know, if you don’t have that flag on your arm if you are operating as an official US soldier and if things don’t go well they can devalue you. I told him that he was not important to it and I am much more cynical and critical about the government and how it works and what it does. He is very more patriotic and believes in mission and democracy and all that. So, well I told him I hope they are careful and he said: “ We have the backing and support of the United States government. Everything is fine”
But how do you whole of your brother’s arrest?
Well, spend some time and I’m watching the news about Venezuela. And I see that he… you know… Maduro claims that he repelled a US invasion on May 4 . There I said: “This must not be good.” So I was watching the
Twitter and all this kind of stuff very closely to try to get an idea of what was going on. If that was, (referring to whether it was his brother) he didn’t even know at the time. If it was his thing or not, I assumed it was because he is working in that area and then something happened. I saw a reporter on Twitter with a bunch of body bags in the back of a truck. And well, I didn’t know if it was there or not. I took reasonable time to talk to my parents about this situation, I waited a while for more information. I wanted to at least be able to tell them if he was alive or dead or what was happening.
So I later found out that that truck had been in the middle of a shooting or something like that and that they had. It wasn’t actually a shootout but they made it look like this. That came out a long time later. But, I finally came across a picture of Luke handcuffed with his hands back and face down on the ground. And I said, well: “At least I know he’s alive. at this time. Correct. We don’t know what’s next. ”
Immediately, Mark Denman spoke with his parents and explained what was happening. Almost immediately, he said the family began receiving calls to find out what had happened. There the media began to cover the news generating a great media noise. As for the videos of the so-called “American mercenaries” , by the Government of Venezuela in which both Luke Denman and Airan Berry do what for many were taken as confessions. So his brother Mark continued:
“We didn’t know where they were for a while until We saw Twitter videos with these alleged confessions … they were there under duress. And at one point they had Luke saying he was part of Donald Trump’s special security team or something ridiculous. It’s like, it’s very obvious that they are reading a script that they are told to say and what they looked at. It was pretty scary because I, you know, I know what my brother is like and both he and Airan looked very malnourished and like they hadn’t slept in a long time. They had a hard time putting together their prayers and all this kind of thing ”
What did you do after watching the video, how did you start trying to help him?
I started trying to make connections on Venezuela. And who could she talk to… how did she find out where these guys were? Just talking to people, all kinds of people and starting to put together what would we need, how would we deal with this? What do we do as a family to help when people pretending to be lawyers most of the time, Eventually yes, some lawyers and investigators in the area. I went to law school. So I looked for professors who deal with international law and maybe they knew someone and people in the military. He knew people who were, uh, he was a JAG attorney for the military, but he had done a lot of work in South America. So maybe they had some connections there. I found researchers, I learned above all a niche that exists in this industry. So I found these companies that have all kinds of staff that you need when someone is kidnapped abroad, which is quite common in international cases. They have these kinds of special forces, investigators, negotiators that come into play to solve these kinds of things.
Mark says that after much searching, he finally chose one of these companies that could help them. But, how did you find out where your brother was?
Already with some investigators on the ground and some lawyers we also learned that Luke and Airan were in a military installation for a time and then they were transferred here and there, to different places to settle later in El Helicoide . There they were transferred to where the political prisoners are, where the 6 from Citgo are. Knowing his exact location took us almost four months.
When did you talk to him?
We finally got a call from them. The authorities who were holding them allowed them to communicate with their families. And that was the first time. I had been getting a lot of reports about them, but this was the first time I saw them to see how they were doing.
What are the conditions of How is your brother Luke classified by the Government of Nicolás Maduro as a “mercenary” of the United States captured in Venezuelan territory?
We know that since they were captured The entire care package from United States has arrived. We send them food regularly so they have clean food and water and a certain amount of medical care. We are at the same time trying to get them as an MP3 player for music and things like this … The impression of their status now in Venezuela is that
are being held as political prisoners to return to negotiate with the United States and, part of that, is that they want them to be healthy and all this kind of things because they anticipate that they have value in the negotiation with the United States.
The Luke’s brother, Mark , said that perhaps what worried them at first when they saw them skinny was thinking they weren’t eating. In turn, he affirmed that, at first, there was a confusion as to whether or not food could be delivered to them.
“Sometimes we could enter and other times we were intercepted. It’s been pretty stable lately. We can get and do things quite regularly and have things delivered to them. So we can say that they are being treated humanely. I can tell by the times we get photos of them or video calls with them that they have gained some weight. So they are getting the food. They are not traumatized, they speak clearly and easily. All that is positive.
However, despite the fact that brother is detained. The family of Luke Denman received what they consider: “Very news in a long time”
What’s that news Mark, how are you going to get your brother out of this?
Roger Carstens was able to visit him. He is the special ambassador of the United States for hostages in progress. This is very important because all this time, a large part of our struggle has been trying to get the United States government to recognize them.
At one point there was information given by Mike Pompeo , where he responded to a reporter when asked about the operation he led Juan Guaidó . He himself said that the United States had not had direct participation in the mission where his brother was detained .
Before this question, Mark replied: “Everyone knew in advance that this answer made no sense because Juan Guaidó was in the United States all that time, he is the one who runs this operation. People said that the American he (Pompeo) knew was from the task force and that he was making statements that indicated that indeed the United States approved this mission and that It is a complete operation of the US Government
He was practically putting on the air that the United States government betrayed him and now they are backing down after my brother’s arrest. Evidence also emerged such as tapes where Juan Guaidó actually signed a contract with them . So Mike Pompeo first talks about it and says that the United States government did not have a direct involvement. A little later he changed his statement. Obviously, no one believes that first version at all. They are pretty sure that the US government helped get it all up and running. Maybe they backed off at some point because they said, “Well, this is going nowhere.” Then they withdrew support.
But, why did the operation continue if they no longer had the support of the US?
Well before that question precisely Mike Pompeo also made the statement as making it look like these guys ( Luke and Damn ) independently arrived there and that: “ They are our citizens and that they will do everything possible to bring them home “. Or at least that was the last we heard.
Mark Denman explained that everything has been complicated because there is no international relationship between Venezuela and the United States . In fact, that was what they initially argued in the United States, that they could not go there because they had a consular situation with that country. They had lawyers who could go see what condition they were in, but there is no American consular service. ican (embassy) that could represent these Americans there.
The lawyers and the family of the “American mercenaries” are based on the Leveson Report that has 20 factors that should be analyzed in cases like these and that Mark He did not want to analyze in this interview for reasons of time. But he explained to us that he basically understands three important facts: “Where are the really innocent people of the crime? Are the people being detained being used as a political pawn for a negotiation? And the other is, Have people been given due process in the country? Well, in the case of Luke and Aaron , it is indisputable that Venezuela is trying to use them to negotiate . They regularly claimed that they are trying, they are being held as political prisoners. Jorge Rodríguez Rodríguez has mentioned them several times when talking to his American counterparts. And he is talking about conditions under which they would release the green stew. “If you do this, we are ready to free the green berets” , he added.
The brother of Luke Denman stated that: “They are being negotiated, that is another matter, Luke and Airan have never been informed of exactly what the charges were against them, nor your lawyers. They do not want to be recognized by that country. After the alleged video confession they were sentenced to 20 years in prison, but not remotely given due process under the law. In fact, they were told that as soon as they were informed of the charges, the negotiation process would begin.
Do you think the negotiation is between Luke Damn and Airan Berry for the diplomat Alex Saab?
I’ve heard that idea rolling around a lot. I don’t have exact information on what senior people are doing in these negotiations . We are a simple family from Texas. I mean, I’ve heard a lot of ideas floating around whether it is indeed the exchange of prisoners between nations. We don’t know exactly what the proposals are, but we certainly hope they are happening as we have heard.
It should be noted that, at the time the authorities of Venezuela presented the case, Jorge Rodríguez , Vice President of Communication and Information, referred to the Americans as two defendants for the crimes of attempted coup d’état and attempted assassination and that both were detained under the orders of the Venezuelan justice in the Intelligence Service (Sebin).
Luke Denman and Airan Berry, former soldiers and employees of the US military contractor Silvercorp, were sentenced in July, 3 months after being arrested. . A trial that was carried out in record time compared to other criminal cases in progress in the Caribbean country.
However, Juan José Rendón, head of the Strategy Committee of the opponent Juan Guaidó , later explained that: “ Finally he did not give them the green light. Juan Guaidó did not sign this agreement ”. This would be a contradiction to the statements of the brother of one of the detainees in Venezuela , in addition to the tape that went viral where they show Juan Guaidó his signature on the document.
In July 2020, two of the six ex-executives of Citgo detained in Venezuela known as the 6 of Citgo , they went on to have house arrest, according to US diplomat Bill Richardson, who two weeks ago met with Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro to address this matter . However, on the same day as the extradition of Alex Saab , the 6 from Citgo were returned to prison.
For their part, “the mercenaries”, as indicated by the current government of Venezuela, are the former green berets Airan Berry and Luke Denman, they are still detained and accused in that country for: “An invasion attempt orchestrated by elements of the Venezuelan opposition” and his family continues to make all possible human efforts so that the government of The United States is responsible for bringing them back, harboring in one of its hopes the diplomatic exchange between the detainees and taking into account that it could occur with the detained Venezuelan diplomat, Alex Saab .
Let us remember that Alex Saab was arrested and extradited to The United States from a prison in Cape Verde to face trial initially on January 3. It was postponed due to an appeal filed by the defense of the Venezuelan diplomat. The United States Government withdrew him from the 8 charges that he was initially charged with and now he will only be tried for the single crime of conspiracy to launder money, where he allegedly would have provided Nicolás Maduro with millionaire earnings in terms of imports for the Great Housing Mission Venezuela between 2011 and 2015.
Keep reading:
What does it mean that Venezuela is the first country in Latin America in which the International Criminal Court opened a formal investigation
Nicolás Maduro demands from the UN that the US and the EU lift all sanctions against Venezuela