Juan Guiado, a Venezuela opposition leader has kept on saying he did not have any involvement in the failed raid that aimed to oust President Nicolas Maduro earlier this month from office. 

However, a document which news organization, el Nuevo Herald obtain showed that the opposition leader was actively hiring a Florida firm, headed by a former Green Beret to perform the incursion.

Only a few days prior to the raid, Silvercorp USA, a Florida law firm sent Guiado and the other opposition party members a letter, reminding them of the initial payment amounting to $1.5 million which they owed the company on a security contract dated October 16, 2019. 

The letter, dated April 28, also indicated that the said contract was "past due." Additionally, it also specified that Guiado's administration was supposed to pay the law firm "the retainer within five days" from the opposition leader, and some of his allies inked the $219.9-million agreement for services that Venezuelan barrels of oil-backed or secured.

Service Contract with Scant Details

The seven-page agreement also called "general services agreement" contains limited details of definite tasks to be executed. It highlights though, the vitality of confidentiality among the parties.

As indicated in the contract, Silvercorp USA, as the service provider, "shall take all measures" rationally essential to shield the "confidential information" it receives from the Guiado's party, at least, as great as the procedures it is taking for the protection of "its own confidential information."

Both, the letter and the agreement which the Washington Post published, contradict the declarations of the opposition leader after the unsuccessful raid that he had no participation in its planning and claimed, he is on the constitution's side.

Guiado, who has been recognized since early 2019, by the US and several other nations as Venezuela's "interim president," has attempted to distance himself from the alleged failed incursion dated May 3 and 4.

He has sought to distance himself as well, from the private security firm based in Melbourne that the opposition party employed for the training of Venezuelan soldiers and others for the execution of movement against the socialist government of Maduro.

The Planned Raid

In an interview, opposition strategist and Venezuelan campaign adviser, J.J. Rendon said that in October last year, Guido signed an initial contract with Silvercorp although within one month, he continued, the opposition leader he lasts interest in pursuing.

While not indicated in the agreement signed by Guiado, Jordan Goudreau, Silvercorp CEO, an ex-Green Beret, and Rendon, among others, the raid group was reportedly "going capture an airport, seize Maduro," as well as his allies, and send them out of the country.

According to Rendon, the contract was also part of a bigger proposal of 42 pages he considered as "an exploration into the idea of seizing the regime's members with existing warrants of arrest "and turning them over to justice."

A couple of months ago, Maduro and the past and present senior members of his administration were instigated with narco-terrorism by the federal prosecutors in New York, offering a $15-million reward for the arrest of the president for his suspected role in authorizing the leftist groups of Colombia to use Venezuela for cocaine shipments to the US.

The proposed raid though, never got a go signal, said Rendon. Someone familiar with the issue told the news organization that Guiado knew the plan although he always delayed the raid. 

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