Two U.S. citizens have been arrested in Venezuela on charges that remain unclear, but which President Nicolas Maduro on Tuesday claimed were related to the intent to “practice terrorism.”

Maduro said “very high level” Americans that he branded “mercenaries” were part of a group of seven who were arrested, though he did not provide any evidence or details of the arrests.

“Just today we’ve captured seven foreign mercenaries, including two important mercenaries from the United States,” said Maduro, according to a Reuters report. 

VENEZUELA’S MADURO TO START THIRD TERM IN OFFICE AMID RIGGED ELECTION: ‘BLATANT VIOLATION’

Maduro – who is set to once again take up the top office on Friday for a third term despite the widely contested results of the July election – said two Colombians and three Ukrainians were also arrested. 

He reportedly said his security forces had arrested 125 foreign mercenaries from 25 different countries who he claimed had entered the country with the intent “to practice terrorism against the Venezuelan people.”

A spokesperson from the State Department flatly rejected Maduro’s claims and told Fox News Digital, “Any claims of U.S. involvement in a plot to overthrow Maduro are categorically false.”  

“The United States continues to support a democratic solution to the political crisis in Venezuela. As Maduro and his associates have shown in the past, they may detain and jail, without justification or due process, U.S. citizens who enter Venezuela,” the spokesperson added. 

The identities of the individuals arrested have not been released due to “privacy and other considerations.”

Though the spokesperson told Fox News Digital that the department is “working to gather more information” and remains “concerned” for the Americans detained in Venezuela. 

Opposition presidential candidate Edmundo Gonzalez leads a demonstration against the election results that declared Nicolas Maduro the winner, in Caracas, Venezuela, July 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Cristian Hernandez)

VENEZUELAN OPPOSITION LEADER WHO CLAIMED VICTORY OVER MADURO MEETS WITH BIDEN

It remains unclear how many Americans are currently held in Venezuela following the significant prisoner swap in 2023 when Washington and Caracas negotiated the release of dozens of prisoners, including 10 Americans, in exchange for Colombian businessman Alex Saab, a close ally of Maduro.

His remarks coincided with a visit to D.C. from opposition presidential candidate Edmundo Gonzalez, who Washington has ardently backed, and who has been declared the president-elect by several nations, including the U.S.

On Monday, President Biden re-emphasized the U.S.’s position on the results of the election – which the Maduro-aligned courts have declared as a victory for the soon-to-be three-term president – and called Gonzalez the “true winner” of the July race.

Venezuelan authorites have refused to release ballot-box results to support their victory claims, while Gonzalez’s team has reportedly published thousands of scanned copies of voting machine results that ballot box observers gathered in the days after the election – reportedly accounting for 80% of the votes cast that showed a win for the opposition leader. 

Maduro’s accusations regarding a U.S.-crafted coup plot escalated in the weeks following his internationally contested election and by September the Venezuelan leader was issuing claims that the CIA had orchestrated a plot to overthrow his government and said some 400 rifles had been seized and a Navy SEAL arrested. 

Isaias Medina, former Venezuelan diplomat to the United Nations, said Maduro’s latest arrests and comments “align with his patterns of ‘hostage diplomacy.’”

Government loyalists hold a poster of the late former President Hugo Chavez during a rally in support of Nicolas Maduro, in Caracas, Venezuela, Wednesday, Aug. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)

“These accusations, widely viewed as baseless, appear to be another ploy to shift attention away from Maduro’s illegitimate inauguration and suppress dissent ahead of anticipated protests,” Medina explained to Fox News Digital. “By tying foreign nationals to these allegations, Maduro seeks to stoke fear of external interference while creating convenient scapegoats for his failing leadership and attempting to legalize state terrorism.

“The timing of these charges raises concerns about Maduro’s broader strategy,” he added. “Moreover, the theatrical accusations serve to justify crackdowns on opposition protests, intimidating Venezuelans into silence as the country sinks deeper into economic and humanitarian crises. 

“These actions underline the lengths Maduro will go to maintain control, despite mounting domestic discontent and growing calls for accountability on the world stage,” Medina said.

The State Department has listed Venezuela as a Level 4 “do not travel” location due to the security threats Americans face there.

Lithuania says it’s ramping up security around the country’s electricity link with Poland ahead of their planned disconnection from the Baltic region’s power systems, a Soviet-era grid shared with Russia and Belarus.

Lithuanian Prime Minister Gintautas Paluckas says the government has asked police forces to protect the power link shared with Warsaw.

After recent incidents and suspected sabotage in the Baltic Sea, Vilnius believes it’s crucial to ensure security measures around the LitPol Link are intensified.

Last month, the former Lithuanian government decided to increase security of the LitPol’s converter and transformer station near the city of Alytus in southern Lithuania. That mission was outsourced to a private security company, who were contracted to protect the premises until spring. They would then handover the protection duty to the country’s Public Security Service.

Paluckas, who assumed office on 12 December, announced on Wednesday that his cabinet has decided to begin the transition process next week.

“We evaluate every possible version of sabotage, from cybersecurity to physical actions. Therefore, we deploy the Public Security Service, because it has the most experience in protecting the critical objects. They will replace private security services that have been protecting these objects,” said Paluckas at a press conference.

Lithuania says the Baltic Sea has for some time been “very peculiar” as incidents of undersea infrastructure damage and destruction increased.

“Either it’s intentional or unintentional, the number of these incidents will increase. The Baltic Sea is very peculiar, it’s relatively shallow and cables are not that deep. Therefore, these incidents will repeat, because Russia is using the shadow fleet,” said Giedrimas Jeglinskas, Chairman of Parliament Committee on National Security and Defence.

Vilnius says it is observing “clear and unambiguous attempts by opponents to disrupt” their planned decoupling from the Russian energy systems, according to the office of the Lithuanian prime minister. They offered no further detail as to what those attempts are or who could be behind them.

The government did however provide assurances to the public asserting that there are no scenarios in which the country would be left without power. Officials also added that if disruptions do indeed occur, they will not steer the country away from its long-time goal of disconnecting from the Kremlin’s electricity grid.  

“There is no scenario in which Lithuania would be left without electricity. We’ve evaluated all scenarios, including operating without any interconnections. Those reserves have been assessed, and scenarios A, B, C, D and so on have been worked out. Perhaps the most important message that we want to communicate is the following: Despite any provocations that could occur, any incidents, the disconnection from BRELL [Belarus, Russia, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania] – the Russian electricity grid – is inevitable and will happen in exactly one month,” noted Arnoldas Pikzirnis, Lithuanian Vice Energy Minister.

The Baltic states expect to decouple from the Russian energy grid shared with Belarus on 8 February.

They then plan to take-over the responsibility for running their own national grids which have been seeing years of steady upgrades. The development of those grids was supported by €1.6 billion of European funding.

Dwight Howard isn’t telling the truth, at least according to the NBA.

The eight-time NBA All Star recently said he was told to delete a 2014 tweet supporting Palestine during a call with league commissioner Adam Silver. That claim is “categorically false” and Silver did not contact the former Orlando Magic star, NBA spokesman Mike Bass said in an email on Wednesday. Howard, who was a member of Houston Rockets at the time, said the tweet jeopardized his playing career.

“I tweeted Free Palestine,” Howard said during a recent podcast appearance on The Gauds Show podcast. “Less than 10 minutes (later), I get a call from the commissioner of the NBA, agents, people working with my foundation at the time … [telling me] ‘you have to erase this tweet, you have to take it down’.”

Howard and his media rep didn’t immediately respond for comment when contacted on Wednesday.

The former NBA champion, who last played in the NBA during the 2021-2022 season with the Los Angeles Lakers, took his career overseas in 2022 and most recently played for the Taiwan Mustangs, teaming up with ex-NBA star DeMarcus Cousins and former Lakers teammate Quinn Cook. His deal with the Mustangs also reportedly made him part owner of The Asian Tournament (TNT) team. The 39-year-old, who won the Defensive Player of the Year award three times and has Hall of Fame worthy career numbers, has previously said that he still wants to return to the NBA despite his age.

“It’s because I went against the grain and said something that people didn’t like,” Howard told Gauds host Ray Daniels. “When you’re in the league, you’re in a place where if (you) say too much, (you) may not get a job anymore. I got to hold my tongue which is so hard to do.”

Howard’s claim that the NBA tried to suppress his attempt to raise awareness around the plight of Palestinians has drawn wide attention on social media and online with multiple Middle East publications reporting on his statement. Several pro-Palestine activists have chimed in on Howard’s claim while denouncing the league, which separately has been criticized for its complex business relationship with China.

Howard, who was aiming to support the Palestinian community he met in Houston, says the tweet situation which came during the 2014 Gaza war highlights the pressure players regularly face to remain silent on controversial topics. His recent claim involving the NBA a decade later comes amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Hamas-led Palestinian military groups, which has resulted in the death of more than 45,000 Palestinians since the attack on October 7 in southern Israel, according to Reuters.

Howard, who reignited his beef with Hall of Famer turned sports analyst Shaquille O’Neal over what he views as O’Neal’s lack of respect for him during the same podcast appearance, separately has made off-the-court headlines over the last year. Businessman Calvin Darden Jr. was convicted in October of scamming Howard out of millions of dollars in a false scheme with help of his former agent Charles Briscoe, who pleaded guilty to his role in perpetuating the fraud back in 2023.