CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro says authorities arrested two U.S. citizens among a group of “mercenaries” trying to kill him.
The Monday arrests come a day after a deadly beach raid near the Caribbean nation’s main port city.
Maduro appeared on state TV, holding up blue U.S. passports, belonging to Luke Denman and Airan Berry, both former U.S. special forces soldiers.
They’re just two of dozens that Venezuelan officials have detained since the pre-dawn beach raid on Sunday that left eight people dead.
Maduro says the soldiers prove the U.S. is plotting his ouster.
However, President Donald Trump says the U.S. had nothing to do with a suspected incursion into Venezuela that landed the U.S. citizens behind bars in the crisis-stricken nation.
Trump said Tuesday that he learned of the pair's detention but said “it has nothing to do with our government.”