Woman Arrested in Colombia Reveals 'Gideon Operation' Details

Yacsy Alvarez, a woman captured in Colombia over the Gideon Operation, revealed the complicity of President Ivan Duque's administration in the failed coup attempt against Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro.

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From La Picaleña prison in the Tolima Department, she assured that Colombian intelligence knew all the details of the paramilitary maritime incursion that took place in La Guaira state, Venezuela, on May 3, 2020.

"I was always in contact with National Intelligence Directorate (DNI) officials. They were aware of Gideon Operation, they knew everything," the Venezuelan woman assured. 

The Colombian Prosecutor's Office accused Alvarez of having supported Venezuela's opposition retired general Cliver Alcala during the training of ex-military and ex-policemen who would carry out the coup. 

She was arrested in Bogota on September 6, 2020, for also being accused of supplying the coup plotters with weapons seized in Colombia.

"I never thought they were going to arrest me. I maintained contact with DNI official Flankin Sanchez all the time. Coincidentally, I was going to meet him the day I was captured," she added. 

The DNI official "asked me to change my Sim Card and to avoid calling him...If the government was protecting me, how can they send me to jail," Alvarez claimed.

In September, Venezuelans Rayder Russo, Juvenal Sequea, and Juven Sequea linked to Operation Gideon were also captured. The arrests were made by officers of the Colombian Attorney General's Office, Police, Army, and Migration.

So far, the Duque administration has made no statement regarding Alvarez's declarations.