Venezuela's Chief Prosecutor Tarek Saab says his office has requested the detention and extradition of US military veteran Jordan Goudreau and two Venezuelans accused of involvement in a failed armed incursion earlier this week.
Mr Saab said Mr Goudreau and two opposition Venezuelan politicians - Miami-based political strategist Juan Rendon and exiled lawmaker Sergio Vergara - had been charged for involvement in the "design financing, and execution" of the plan to invade and overthrow socialist President Nicolas Maduro.
Mr Goudreau, chief executive of Florida-based security company Silvercorp USA, has claimed responsibility for the plan, which left eight people dead and more than a dozen in custody, including two US citizens accompanying the dissident Venezuelan security forces.
Mr Rendon has said that while he negotiated an agreement with Silvercorp late last year, he cut ties with Mr Goudreau in November and that Mr Goudreau went forward with the failed operation on his own.
US President Donald Trump has previously denied his country's involvement in the alleged plot. Source: AAP
President Donald Trump has previously denied US government involvement in what Venezuela's president says was an attempted overthrow in which two Americans were arrested.
"It has nothing to do with our government," Mr Trump told reporters at the White House.
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has said that two US citizens were among those arrested after his forces foiled an "invasion" from the sea.
Earlier this year the US announced the indictment of Mr Maduro for "narco-terrorism" and offered $15 million (A$25 million) for information leading to his capture.
In an extremely rare criminal case brought against a foreign head of state, the US accused Mr Maduro of being the leader of a cocaine trafficking group called "The Cartel of the Suns."
Venezuela's attorney general has also claimed that opposition leader Juan Guaido had contracted "mercenaries for hire" using Venezuelan state oil company funds frozen in the United States.
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