At Toronto film fest, the bizarre tale of a failed coup in Venezuela

Former US special forces trying to help overthrow Venezuelan strongman Nicolas Maduro? Check. Speedboats cruising through international waters, private unmarked planes and Venezuelan army deserters in the Colombian jungle? Check.

Filmmaker Jen Gatien first learned about Jordan Goudreau, a decorated onetime US Army Green Beret now facing federal weapons smuggling charges in connection with a failed 2020 coup attempt in Venezuela, by reading the newspaper.

To her great surprise, when she Googled his phone number and texted him, he replied almost immediately.

So begins the strange and twisting tale of "Men of War," a documentary which made its world premiere during the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), the largest in North America.

"He's the only mercenary, or the only person to me that's been labeled a mercenary, who never got paid," Gatien told AFP in an interview with co-director Billy Corben.

She explained that the Green Beret motto, which translates roughly from Latin as "Free the Oppressed," was deeply ingrained in Goudreau and his fellow soldiers.

"I think that the mission in Venezuela spoke to something much deeper than money," she said.

- Contracts, and deniability -

Through a mix of original footage obtained from Goudreau and interviews with key players in the saga, interspersed with images from pop culture of Rambo and Jason Bourne, Gatien and Corben lift the lid on a web of intrigue.

Goudreau is a decorated Iraq and Afghanistan US military veteran who founded security company Silvercorp after being medically retired.

"We're in the business of war. And the more you get comfortable with it, the more you do it -- it becomes, like, this drug," Goudreau, now 48, says at the start of the movie.

He found himself at the center of the swirling "Operation Gideon," from its nascent stages in Miami in mid-2019 to an actual effort in May 2020 to use a small group of men to infiltrate Venezuela, join up with other military deserters and oust Maduro.

Misunderstandings with Venezuela's opposition movement, then led by US-backed Juan Guaido, nebulous US government contacts, double-crossings and a lack of resources ultimately doomed the mission before it ever began.

Several insurrectionists were killed, and two Americans -- war buddies of Goudreau who volunteered to help him - spent more than three years in a Venezuelan jail before being freed in 2023.

"Was I in over my head? Yeah," Goudreau admits in the film.

Corben and Gatien say Goudreau definitely has a signed agreement with Guaido -- albeit one with a "Mission: Impossible"-style deniability clause that if things went south, the opposition would disavow the operation.

He also had an audio recording of the signing session with Guaido, who many countries including the United States declared was Venezuela's rightful president after Maduro claimed victory in the disputed 2018 election.

"He has the receipts. Had he not had that recording of that contract signing, I think we all would have just laughed him out of the room," Gatien said.

- 'Fall guy' -

After the failed coup, Goudreau went on the run to Mexico, but later returned home.

The film's final twist is a doozy: after a four-year investigation, Goudreau is arrested by US marshals and charged in federal court.

He has pleaded not guilty, been released on bail and is awaiting trial. He faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted.

So given his perilous legal situation, why would Goudreau even agree to make this film?

"He had a really big push to make the film because he really felt that he had been portrayed as the fall guy in this," Gatien said.

The filmmakers say Goudreau's plight reveals a wider problem: what happens to soldiers who are trained to kill when they leave the military?

"What happens to these Captain Americas and GI Joes and GI Janes when the governments are done playing with them?" Corben asks.

Meanwhile, Maduro has once again been accused of a fraudulent reelection victory this past July.

"Due to breaking news and seemingly weekly unfolding events in this story, this is a work in progress that we're screening," Corben said.

TIFF runs through Sunday.