Iran Press/America: Erik Prince, the founder of the notorious US mercenary firm Blackwater and a prominent supporter of US President Donald Trump, has been pushing a plan to deploy a private army to help topple Venezuela’s president, Nicolas Maduro, four sources with knowledge of the effort told Reuters.

The report by Reuters on Tuesday, citing four unnamed sources, reveals that Erik Prince, the founder of the controversial private security firm Blackwater, who is also a firm Trump supporter, has offered to deploy an army to the South American country in order to oust Maduro.

According to the report, Prince has been mainly seeking investment and political support for his plan from influential Trump supporters and wealthy Venezuelan nationals who have long been living in exile.

The sources said he has asked for at least $40 million in funds plus a chunk of billions of dollars Venezuela has in frozen assets around the world.

In his private meetings, which stretch from the United States to several European countries, Prince has set out a plan to recruit up to 5,000 mercenaries on behalf of Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido, who has challenged Maduro since January by proclaiming himself president.

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The sources who had direct knowledge of Prince’s plan said it started with intelligence operations and continued by deploying to Venezuela between 4,000 and 5,000 forces from Colombia and other Latin American nations to carry out the mission.

The attempt is still ongoing as one source said Prince has held meetings as recently as mid-April.

It is not yet clear which Trump officials Prince has been able to reach out to.

In January, US National Security Adviser John Bolton and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin held a press conference to announce that the US had blocked all assets of Venezuela's state-run oil company PDVSA under its jurisdiction and banned deals with the firm.

Earlier this year, National Security Adviser John Bolton was photographed holding confidential papers included two lines of writing: "Afghanistan -> Welcome the Talks," which referred to ongoing negotiations between Washington and the Taliban militant group, and "5,000 troops to Colombia." 103/211/209

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