Saab said the US citizen, Matthew John Heath, was plotting attacks against Venezuela’s oil industry and electricity system. The OPEC member country, mired in a six-year economic crisis, is currently experiencing fuel shortages due to a collapse in output from its oil refineries as well as US sanctions.

The US State Department had no immediate comment.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro last week announced the capture of an unnamed US citizen arrested while allegedly spying on the country’s Amuay and Cardon refineries in western Falcon state, while carrying “specialized weapons” and large amounts of cash. Pro-government media published Heath’s name over the weekend.

A US government source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Washington was investigating Venezuelan authorities’ claims and advised skepticism, Reuters reported.

Saab said Heath was not carrying a passport and had entered illegally via the Colombian border, but that authorities found a passport photocopy hidden in one of his shoes. He also said Heath was carrying a “coin” linking him to the Central Intelligence Agency, without providing details, and said he had previously worked for a private military contractor.

Saab added that three Venezuelan citizens, including one member of the military, were arrested and charged with treason as part of the plot.

“They tried to fill the country with blood,” Saab said. “The Venezuelan state has managed to neutralize the plans to attack the oil industry and national electric system.”

Caracas last month sentenced two former US soldiers to 20 years in prison for their role in a May incursion aimed at ousting Maduro.

The man is said to be a Marine who worked for the CIA in Iraq.

The spy was trying to collect information on the refineries in Amuay and Cardon, Maduro said in a televised address on Friday. The two facilities are located on the Paraguana Peninsula, along the Venezuelan coast just south of Aruba.

According to the president, the detained American is a member of the US Marine Corps who worked with the CIA in Iraq, and was captured with “heavy, specialized weapons and a large amount of cash.”

Maduro added that he ordered heightened security at all Venezuelan refineries after the spy was captured. Earlier, he said, the country’s Petroleum Ministry discovered and thwarted a plan “to cause an explosion” at the El Palito refinery in Carabobo, west of Caracas, RT reported.

It is a war of revenge by the gringo empire to prevent Venezuela from producing all petroleum derivatives and gasoline

Maduro accused the US of waging an economic war against Venezuela, trying to destroy the country’s oil industry. “They have reached a level of madness,” he said.

Washington has accused Maduro of being a “dictator” and recognized opposition politician Juan Guaido as “interim president” back in January 2019. Despite the support of the US and most Latin American states, however, Guaido has failed in repeated attempts to take power in Caracas.

The US oil embargo has hit Venezuela hard, reducing its exports to lowest levels since 1943 and only rising slightly in August due to special purchases from India. The US has confiscated any property of the Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA and redirected it to the coffers of Guaido and his supporters.

The Bank of England likewise blocked Caracas from accessing some $1 billion in gold stored in its vaults, with British judges ruling it rightly belonged to the US-backed politician instead.

Two former members of the US military have already been detained in Venezuela earlier this year. Employees of the Florida-based mercenary outfit Silvercorp, former US Army Special Forces operators (‘Green Berets’) were captured in May, after trying to cross from Colombia. They admitted they were trying to abduct Maduro and install Guaido as president. One of them, Luke Denman, later told Venezuelan TV that Guaido had “greatly misled” them about the situation in Venezuela.

The US government denied any knowledge or involvement in the operation. So did Guaido, insisting he had “no link, commitment or responsibility to Silvercorp or its actions.” Earlier in May, however, the Washington Post had published a 41-page contract between Guaido and Silvercorp referring to him as “commander in chief.”

Denman told the Venezuelan authorities the company’s executives had met with Guaido while he was visiting the White House. He and the other Green Beret, Airan Berry, were sentenced last month to 20 years in prison over the plot.