Jorge Rodriguez. (Photo: teleSUR)

Caracas, January 31 (RHC)-- The President of the Venezuelan National Assembly, Jorge Rodríguez, has announced the arrest of an alleged mercenary who confessed to being involved in the May 3rd attempted military incursion.

"In recent days, citizen Juan Gutiérrez Aranguren was captured, who is part of the contingent of paramilitaries who attempted an armed incursion," said Jorge Rodríguez during a press conference in Caracas.  The president of the Parliament explained that the subject took refuge during the last 9 months in Caracas and in the state of La Guaira and was arrested when he tried to cross by land to Colombia.

In a video presented by Rodríguez, Gutiérrez, a captain of the Venezuelan armed forces, is seen confessing that he was recruited in Ramo Verde prison by opposition fugitive Leopoldo López.  In the audiovisual material, Gutiérrez confessed that he had been trained in Colombia to enter Venezuela to overthrow President Nicolás Maduro.

The subject assured that the president of Colombia, Iván Duque, also gave him support in his country to enter the camps where he received training along with other mercenaries.

The detainee, stated Rodríguez, participated in the so-called Operation Gedeón, which took place on May 3rd, and according to the authorities' report, in addition to the capture of Maduro, he had planned to attack the headquarters of several State security bodies and to take over the Simón Bolívar International Airport, which is the main airport in the country.

The President of the Parliament pointed out that the former Ambassador of Spain in Caracas, Jesús Silva, was involved in the operation.  He also said that the next few days, he will present details of an action allegedly planned by Leopoldo López, which was aimed at placing bombs in the National Assembly on January 5th, when the new legislative cycle was installed.