An audacious plan was hatched to get a member of the Venezuelan president’s honour guard to surreptitiously bring him to America to face justice Nicolás Maduro with the pilot Bitner Villegas, a member of the elite presidential honour guard and a colonel in the Venezuelan air forceAP Stephen Gibbs, Latin America Correspondent Wednesday October 29 2025, 7.49pm GMT, The Times What better way to bring Nicolás Maduro, the Venezuelan president, to US justice than to bribe his personal pilot to surreptitiously divert the government jet while the dictator sat, entirely unawares, behind him? That was the thinking of an American embassy attaché in the Dominican Republic, who made the bold proposal to the pilot, promising that he had a chance to be “Venezuela’s hero and be on the right side of history”. His approaches were ultimately rejected. The story, straight out of a spy thriller, was reported by the Associated Press after interviews with present and former US officials, an opponent of Maduro’s and the review of text exchanges between the pilot and the retired former embassy attaché. Top stories 1 2 3 4 5 The report comes as the United States amasses the largest fleet since the Cold War in the Caribbean in a mission widely seen as an effort to push Maduro, 62, from power. The US State Department is concurrently offering a $50 million (£38 million) reward for information leading to the president’s arrest, alleging he is a “narco-terrorist”. Maduro says he has no connection with drug trafficking. Maduro last monthFEDERICO PARRA/AFP/GETTY IMAGES The US has been striking boats carrying alleged drug traffickersAFP/GETTY IMAGES The plot, the AP reported, began in April last year when the US embassy in the Dominican Republic received a tip-off. The informant said two aircraft used by Maduro were in the Caribbean nation, undergoing repairs. Working inside the embassy complex that day was Edwin Lopez, a Puerto Rican former US army ranger, who was part of the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) team leading investigations into transnational criminal networks in the Caribbean. Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, right, speaking to Edwin Lopez at La Isabela international airport in FebruaryMARK SCHIEFELBEIN/AP The information about the aircraft piqued his interest, especially when it emerged that five Venezuelan pilots were soon expected in the Dominican Republic, tasked with flying both the Dassault Falcon jets back to Caracas, the capital of Venezuela. Top stories 1 2 3 4 5 The DHS agent obtained approval from his seniors to go to La Isabela international airport and try to make contact with the pilots. In a waiting room off the main hangar he spoke to all five. His main target was the most senior: Bitner Villegas, a member of the elite presidential honour guard and a colonel in the Venezuelan air force. After some small talk, during which the colonel seemed “nervous”, the American revealed his real identity and presented the pilot with an offer he hoped he would not be able to refuse: fly Maduro to US justice and in return become both very rich and beloved by millions. The pilot could choose the precise destination: those suggested included Puerto Rico or the US military base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Maduro marking Indigenous Day in Caracas this monthARIANA CUBILLOS/AP Villegas did not accept the offer, but he was reported to have given Lopez his mobile phone number. In the weeks that followed, the men exchanged a series of messages, with the American making it clear the offer was still on the table. The texts continued after Lopez retired in July. Last month the DHS agent reached out one more time. This time, the president’s pilot responded testily. “We Venezuelans are cut from a different cloth,” he texted. “The last thing we are is traitors.” Shortly afterwards, he blocked the American’s number. The next day, Marshall Billingslea, a former national security official in the US, who in retirement has taken to trolling Maduro online, posted a cryptic message to the pilot. He wished him “Happy birthday” — it was his birthday — and included a photo of Villegas, in the Dominican Republic, taken during that first meeting with Lopez. The American was cropped out of the shot. For several days, there was speculation in Venezuela that the pilot had been arrested. But on September 24 he resurfaced, wearing his air force flight suit, on a state television show, hosted by Diosdado Cabello, the interior minister. Like Maduro, Cabello also has a reward in place from the US for information leading to his arrest, in his case for $25 million. The ebullient interior minister introduced the pilot to his audience, describing him as an “unwavering patriot”. His case proved conclusively, he said, that the Venezuelan military “cannot be bought”.