By Staff, Agencies

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said in a televised speech on Wednesday that opposition leader Juan Guaido had discussed a sea invasion in Venezuela during a visit to the White House.

"It was at the White House on 4 February of this year, 2020, where Juan Guaido met with Jordan Goudreau, head of [private security firm] Silvercorp, by order of [US President] Donald Trump to articulate the plan of attack," Maduro said.

He added that "it would be very easy to verify Goudreau's presence" at the White House between 2019 and 2020 and "in which room he met with Guaido".

Guaido, the US-backed self-declared leader of Venezuela, visited Washington, DC on 4-5 February, where he even attended Trump's State of the Union address.

Trump welcomed him as Venezuela's "true and legitimate" leader and called Maduro a "tyrant", but there is no evidence so far that Maduro met Goudreau at the time.

Venezuelan authorities this month thwarted an incursion of dozens of armed men on high-speed boats in the northern coastal state of La Guaira, code-named Operation Gideon. Eight of the raiders have been killed and at least 48 others, mostly Venezuelan army deserters, have been arrested.