Americans held captive by South American dictator symptom of deeper threat, says former Green Beret

After the State Department determined nine Americans are being held hostage by Venezuelan socialist dictator Nicolás Maduro, Jordan Goudreau, a former U.S. Army Green Beret and Venezuela expert, is sounding the alarm about a deeper national security problem at play.

Goudreau, who helped lead an unsuccessful paramilitary attempt to overthrow the Maduro regime in 2020, told Fox News Digital it is “very reasonable to believe” that foreign actors, including China, have a presence in Venezuela and could be using the South American dictator to conduct “asymmetric warfare” on the United States.

This comes after a spokesperson for the State Department revealed last week that Secretary of State Marco Rubio determined that Maduro’s government is holding nine Americans hostage under “questionable circumstances and without respect for their rights,” according to Reuters. 

The State Department spokesperson said, “All Americans unjustly detained by the Maduro regime must be released immediately” and noted that the U.S. “continues our efforts to secure the release of any remaining Americans unjustly detained by the regime in Venezuela.”

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Nicolás Maduro and President Donald Trump (Getty Images)

According to Goudreau, the Venezuelan government has a pattern of cooperating with U.S. enemies such as Russia and China, which represents a “clear and present danger” to U.S. national security.

Goudreau pointed to the Monroe Doctrine, an 1823 proclamation that said America would not allow foreign enemies in the Western Hemisphere as “one of the reasons Venezuela is significant.”

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Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro delivers a speech at the Miraflores presidential palace in Caracas Jan. 10, 2025.  (Pedro Rances Mattey/Anadolu via Getty Images)

He said there is evidence China is supplying Venezuela with some of the chemical materials needed to manufacture fentanyl, which is then distributed throughout the U.S. by Maduro agents, including the Venezuelan criminal group Tren de Aragua (TdA).

TdA is an international gang that has unleashed a wave of terror across U.S. cities that has included taking over entire apartment complexes in Aurora, Colorado. The group was recently designated a foreign terrorist organization by the Department of State.

Through these networks, Goudreau said, Maduro can “flood the United States with fentanyl.”

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President Donald Trump signs an executive order to stop Tren de Aragua on his first day in office Jan. 20, 2025. (Reuters/Getty)

“Because he has individuals who have access and placement [in the United States], whether it’s Tren de Aragua or whoever, he obviously has agents in the United States who are moving product, moving fentanyl and things of that nature, killing Americans. So, this is the obvious threat we’ve seen this over the last four years,” Goudreau explained.

He acknowledged recent efforts to shut the border and crack down on illegal immigration have helped, but he said the threat still exists.

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Despite this, Goudreau cautioned against any sudden moves by the Trump administration to help the Venezuelan resistance movement against Maduro.

“Everybody wants to create a kind of clarity, but this is an incredibly complex situation. It’s not going to get fixed overnight,” he said.