The ‘betrayal in the skies’ did not happen.
Under the feeble Joe Biden administration, a federal agent developed an operation that, while unsuccessful, demonstrates just how approachable is the inner circle of Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro.
The agent approached Nicolás Maduro’s chief pilot, General Bitner Villegas, with an offer: divert the Venezuelan presidential plane to a place where US authorities could detain him.
In exchange, the pilot would become ‘a very rich man’.
Associated Press reported:
“The conversation was tense, and the pilot left noncommittal, though he provided the agent, Edwin Lopez, with his cell number — a sign he might be interested in helping the U.S. government. Over the next 16 months, even after retiring from his government job in July, Lopez kept at it, chatting with the pilot over an encrypted messaging app.”
The operation – started under Biden but seemingly continued during Trump’s administration – seems very improvised to the observer, but sheds light on the Maduro team’s vulnerabilities.
“’I’m still waiting for your answer’, Lopez wrote the pilot on Aug. 7, attaching a link to a Justice Department press release announcing the reward had risen to $50 million.
Details of the ultimately unsuccessful plan were drawn from interviews with three current and former U.S. officials, as well as one of Maduro’s opponents. All spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were either not authorized to discuss the effort or feared retribution for disclosing it. The Associated Press also reviewed — and authenticated — text exchanges between Lopez and the pilot.”
CIA tried to buy Maduro’s pilot — report
All the pilot had to do was quietly land the president’s plane somewhere the Americans could snatch him.
The plan failed. pic.twitter.com/GDMBI5e3kQ
— Tibo91 (@Tibortibor15) October 28, 2025
It all began when an informant told the US Embassy in the Dominican Republic that Maduro’s planes were in the country ‘undergoing costly repairs’.
Lopez knew that this was a criminal violation of US sanctions on Venezuela.
“Lopez had an epiphany, according to the current and former officials familiar with the operation: What if he could persuade the pilot to fly Maduro to a place where the U.S. could arrest him? Maduro had been indicted in 2020 on federal narco-terrorism charges accusing him of flooding the U.S. with cocaine.”
Lopez interviewed Villegas, who eventually admitted he had been a pilot for both leaders, and provided details about Venezuelan military installations he had visited.
Even in retirement, Lopez kept going, focused on coaxing Villegas to deliver Maduro.
“After the August text about the $50 million reward, Lopez sent another saying there was “still time left to be Venezuela’s hero and be on the right side of history.” But he did not hear back.
[…] When Lopez pressed about what they discussed in the Dominican Republic, Villegas grew combative, calling Lopez a “coward.” ‘We Venezuelans are cut from a different cloth’, Villegas wrote. ‘The last thing we are is traitors’.”
Once it became clear that Villegas wasn’t going to flip, Lopez and others in the anti-Maduro movement decided to try to unnerve the Venezuelan leader, suggesting that the pilot was compromised.
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