U.S. Agents Tried to Recruit Venezuela’s Presidential Pilot

U.S. officials sought to recruit the chief pilot of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in an effort to lure him to a location where the United States could carry out an arrest, according to Associated Press sources, including current and former U.S. officials and a representative of the Venezuelan opposition.

According to the agency, the recruitment operation began in April 2024. It was initiated by Edwin López, a 50-year-old official with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security who was serving as an attaché at the American embassy in the Dominican Republic at the time.

López received a tip from an informant that two aircraft linked to Maduro—the Dassault Falcon 2000EX and Dassault Falcon 900EX—were undergoing maintenance at the Santo Domingo airport. Accompanying the planes were five pilots, including their lead aviator, General Bitner Villegas.

U.S. agents interrogated the pilots, pretending not to know about their ties to Venezuela’s leadership. Villegas was questioned last. As the conversation ended, López offered him a large sum of money to fly the president to a location where he could be arrested. The pilot was given several options: the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, or the U.S. base at Guantánamo.

Villegas did not give a clear answer but left his phone number, which the agents took as an encouraging sign. The crew was allowed to return to Caracas, while the planes were detained and later confiscated under U.S. sanctions against Venezuela.

For the next 16 months, López maintained contact with the pilot, trying to persuade him to cooperate—even after retiring in the summer of 2025. In August, he sent Villegas a message raising the reward for information leading to Maduro’s capture to $50 million. After that, the general stopped responding.

When it became clear that the operation had failed, those involved tried a different tactic—provoking irritation in the Venezuelan leader. On September 19, former Trump administration official Marshall Billingslea, who has ties to Venezuela’s opposition, posted birthday wishes to Villegas on social media and shared a photo of the pilot meeting with López, cropped to exclude the agent himself.

According to Associated Press, the post appeared just a minute before Maduro’s plane took off from Caracas—only for the aircraft to turn back to the airport twenty minutes later.

The publication caused a stir on Venezuelan social media. Opponents of Maduro speculated that the pilot might have been summoned for questioning, while others feared he had been arrested. For several days, there was no information about Villegas until, on September 24, he appeared on a state television program praising the “loyalty and incorruptibility” of Venezuelan pilots.

In conclusion, Associated Press notes that the recruitment attempt itself resembles the plot of a spy thriller. “More broadly, the operation illustrates how persistently—and at times carelessly—the United States has sought to bring about Maduro’s downfall,” the agency writes.