Erik Prince, the billionaire founder of the infamous Blackwater security firm, has reportedly lobbied for thousands of his mercenaries to be deployed to Venezuela to break the stalemate that has settled between President Nicolás Maduro and his U.S.-backed rival, Juan Guaidó.
According to a Reuters report, Prince has been meeting with influential supporters of President Donald Trump and wealthy Venezuelans living in exile to build support for his plan, which would see up to 5,000 Spanish-speaking troops sent to the beleaguered South American nation at a cost of around $40 million.
According to two sources with knowledge of Prince’s pitch, the operation would begin with intelligence gathering and later develop into combat and stabilization missions. The idea is to create a “dynamic event” that would break the stalemate between the two opposing camps, one source told Reuters.
