Airan Berry, captured by security forces, says group aimed to haul Maduro away ‘however necessary’An American soldier of fortune captured during a botched attempt to seize Venezuela’s leader has claimed his group had plotted to raid Nicolás Maduro’s presidential palace before spiriting him away “however necessary”.Airan Berry, 41, was one of two US mercenaries captured by Venezuelan security forces this week after what appears to have been a catastrophically executed attempt to topple Maduro by sneaking into the South American country in a pair of weather-beaten fishing boats.In an edited televised confession, broadcast by Venezuelan state television on Thursday, Berry claimed one of the group’s key objectives was to commandeer the heavily fortified Miraflores palace in the capital, Caracas.Asked how they planned to extract Maduro from the 19th-century building, the Iraq veteran answered: “I’m not exactly sure – however necessary.”Berry said the group had also planned to “secure the ai...
