Authorities from the United States federal government issued denials about the involvement of the country in a botched coup attempt to overthrow President Nicolás Maduro, who had a bounty that was worth $15 million by the U.S. Justice Department this year.

Earlier this week, Maduro ordered the detainment of former U.S. special forces soldiers Airan Berry and Luke Denman after an attempted kidnapping of the president in Caracas.


U.S. Attempts to Oust Maduro for the Past Year

The presidential crisis in Valenzuela began when Juan Guaidó, president of the National Assembly, announced he was the acting president of the country.

What further delegitimized was that the U.S., along with other allied countries, started recognizing Guaidó as Valenzuela's leader of the state since it was considered one of the world's worst humanitarian crisis.

After this, Agence France-Presse reported a memo by the U.S. Agency for International Development that the latter would "divert" over $40 million in the promotion of Guaidó. This would be reserved for salaries and stipends covering travel, and other essential expenses for a complete democratic transition. They added another $2 million to support the opposition party.

President Donald Trump then ordered a freeze on all Venezuelan government assets in the United States as part of the measures for Maduro's removal from office. All of this happened last year.

This Monday, Maduro insisted that Denman and Berry were involved in the operation from the orders of the U.S. and Colombia to assassinate him.

Trump said that the U.S. was not involved in the operation. National Defense Secretary Mark Esper supported this claim. Trump told reporters, "It has nothing to do with our government."

Silvercorp founder and former U.S. Green Beret Jordan Goudreau said he was accountable for leading Operation Gideon last Sunday.


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U.S. Coups in Other Nations

A lot of other countries' governments are wary of any involvement with the U.S., especially since the nation has had an active history of changing regimes over the world.

In Iran back in 1953, then-Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh was removed from office through the involvement of the Central Intelligence Agency, who organized a campaign to topple down Mossadegh's administration.

Eventually, the Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi was reinstated in that year's coup. Much later, he was overthrown by the Iranian citizens during the 1979 revolution. To this day, there are still tensions between the U.S. and Tehran.

In Latin America, oppressive leaders have been supported by previous administrations in the U.S. in the past. For instance, there are records of the involvement of the United States in the regimes of Chile, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Honduras, Mexico, Panama, Uruguay, and Nicaragua, to name a few.

During a coup to oust the then-elected Chilean socialist leader, President Salvador Allende died. At the time, U.S. President Richard Nixon elected Augusto Pinochet, a political tyrant whose administration saw the death of thousands of Chileans.

Another U.S.-elected official who was overthrown after a national revolution was Cuban President Fulgencio Batista, who was supported by the United States as a military dictator.