This kind of bizarre headline seems to only keep coming out of Venezuela: President Nicolás Maduro says that US nationals are among a group of 'mercenaries' detained by authorities.
Maduro claimed in a Tuesday announcement that seven foreign mercenaries, including Ukrainians and Americans, were caught in the act of plotting to attack and destabilize the country's leadership. "Just today we've captured seven foreign mercenaries, including two important mercenaries from the United States," he said.
He described that the group also included two Colombian hitmen captured "in different places" as well as "three mercenaries who came from Ukraine, from the war in Ukraine, to bring violence to the country."
The two Americans were characterized as "very high level" and "important" mercenaries; however, no further details of the identities of the detained have been released.
Maduro claimed the group had planned "to carry out attacks on the leaders of the revolution" - in reference to Bolivarian socialism popularized which goes back to his mentor and prior leader Hugo Chavez.
It's possible the group is being subject to severe interrogation, or even torture: "I am sure that in the next few hours, they will confess," Maduro additionally stated.
Key context for all this is the Biden administration recognizing and welcoming into the US a new Venezuelan 'interim president':
The announcement of the detention of the foreign nationals comes just hours after US President Joe Biden welcomed exiled Venezuelan opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia to the United States.
Biden expressed his support for a "peaceful transfer back to democratic rule" in Venezuela and cautioned against further repression.
The US and other neighboring countries believe Gonzalez Urrutia won a July presidential election by a landslide and that official results were fudged.
The opposition is in the meantime calling for "millions" of Venezuelans to protest Maduro's Friday inauguration to a third six-year term, which the US says was based on a rigged election.
But as the AP points out, opposition leadership has been in shambles: "Whether people will protest against Maduro on Friday remains to be seen since the government’s post-election repression campaign, including the arrests of more than 2,000 people, has had a chilling effect. And even if opposition supporters decide to demonstrate, it is unclear who would lead them," it writes.
The timing is also interesting given that in less that two weeks, Maduro's archnemesis Donald Trump returns to the White House. Maduro has already accused Trump of seeking to orchestrate regime change in his country in order to take the oil.