Caracas: A Venezuelan court has sentenced 29 people to 30 years in prison for their involvement in an attempt to overthrow the government of President Nicolas Maduro.
In May 2020, an attack by Caracas, called Operation Marine, left eight participants dead.
Officials said the operator was trying to invade Venezuela by sea from Colombia to topple Maduro.
Caracas claims it is led by retired soldiers and foreign mercenaries and financed by the opposition.
The United States also refused to get involved.
Attorney General Tarek William Saab said Wednesday that 20 of the 29 defendants were sentenced to a maximum of 30 years in prison and the rest 21 years.
The charges include terrorism, treason and selling weapons of war.
“We are talking about an operation born abroad, especially in the United States, and (and) prepared to attack, attack, attack Venezuela and wash our country with blood,” Saab told reporters in Caracas.
In X, he said the rebels “want to kill high officials,” including Maduro.
The Coalition for Human Rights and Democracy published the names of those sentenced to the government, including Josnars Adolfo Baduel, the son of the general who opposed Maduro’s predecessor, Hugo Chavez, and who died in prison in 2021.
Baduel’s sister, Andreina, said her brother had been the victim of “torture” in custody and called the sentence unjust.
He told AFP he had been “stolen by the court”, adding that the verdict would be appealed to an international court as soon as possible.
The JEP legal watchdog said there was an “exhibition” of charges ranging from the highest to the maximum penalty.
“We don’t expect to be punished or acquitted,” JEP spokeswoman Marta Tineo said.
The government accused exiled former opposition leader Juan Guaidó of financing operations with US funds after the 2018 re-election of Maduro, who was soon recognized by the US and other countries as Venezuela’s legitimate president.
According to Saab, some of those involved in the failed mission remain at large – some of them live in Colombia, the United States, Spain and Panama.
His name is Jordan Goudreau, a former member of the American special forces and the founder of the Venezuelan security company Silvercorp.
Two former US soldiers were sentenced to 20 years in prison in Venezuela, but were later released.
