Golpe Azul

Golpe Azul (English: Blue Strike), also known as Operation Jericho, was an accusation by the Venezuelan government that resulted in the arrest of several people, including the metropolitan mayor of Caracas Antonio Ledezma.

The accusation consisted in an alleged coup d'état plan against the presidency of Nicolás Maduro, which reportedly would take place on 12 February 2015 and would have several targets in Caracas.

[1] Venezuelan NGO Foro Penal declared that the accused suspects were political prisoners and that they were convicted without evidence, and its director Alfredo Romero described the sentence as arbitrary.

Libertador Municipality Mayor Jorge Rodríguez, during a special broadcast of Con El Mazo Dando on state-run Venezolana de Televisión (VTV), denounced the participants of an alleged attempt planned by aviation general Oswaldo Hernández, who was convicted in May 2014 along with nine other military personnel for the crimes of rebellion and against military decorum.

He also showed maps allegedly located on the computer equipment of the protagonists of Golpe Azul, where buildings appeared in Caracas that were marked as tactical objectives such as the Miraflores Palace, the Public Ministry of Venezuela, the Caracas mayor's office, the Ministry of Defense headquarters, the Ministry of Interior, Justice and Peace building, the Supreme Tribunal of Justice (TSJ), the National Electoral Council (CNE), the Directorate General of Military Counterintelligence (DGCIM) and offices of Telesur.

[6][7] During the program, Mayor Jorge Rodríguez accused National Assembly deputy and opposition politician Julio Borges of choosing the places indicated as tactical objectives.

Cabello also revealed the alleged possession of AR-15 rifles, grenades, military and security uniforms, as well as an eight-minute video with a statement from the protagonists.

According to Cabello, the bombing would be carried out with a Tucano artillery plane after publishing a statement in the national press requesting the government, among other things, the dissolution of public powers, the call for elections and the affiliation to organizations such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and later the military would issue a uniformed message where they would make a called the population to calm.

[13] Hours after the news broke, hundreds of Ledezma supporters gathered in a Caracas plaza to denounce his arrest.