VENEZUELA’S MADURO BUOYED AFTER FAILED AMPHIBIOUS RAID

For Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, it’s the propaganda gift that keeps on giving, buoying a leader long in Washington’s crosshairs.

For Juan Guaidó, it’s just the latest misstep, reviving questions about the competence of the Trump administration’s man in Caracas.

The botched May 3 amphibious assault on the Venezuelan coast quickly became a Maduro rallying cry, a Bay of Pigs in miniature, complete with a pair of captured U.S. gunmen — Iraq War veterans who were soon on state TV admitting their roles in a B-movie plot to kidnap Maduro and fly him to the United States.

Venezuelan forces easily foiled the three-boat fleet of aqua invaders, most of them Venezuelan defectors, being ferried to a busy port zone and a remote stretch of beach on the country’s Caribbean coast, at the northern tip of South America. Eight intruders were killed and some three dozen captured, the government said, with the two ex-u.s. Army soldiers among the prisoners.

“Who were they fighting for? For Donald Trump, it’s that simple, let no one doubt it,” declared Maduro, who denounced the “Rambo” operation as he brandished the U.S passports of the two captives.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo denied any “direct” U.S. involvement and declined to provide details on who financed the operation.

“As for who bankrolled it, we’re not prepared to share any more information about what we know took place,” Pompeo told reporters. “We’ll unpack that at an appropriate time.”

Meantime, Guaidó — whose self-declared interim presidency has been rocked by a series of stumbles over the last 16 months — was hard-pressed to explain away his signature on a jaw-dropping $210 million contract with Silvercorp USA, the Florida security firm that acknowledged it was behind the raid.

The funds were to be backed by “Venezuelan barrels of oil” extracted once Maduro was out and replaced by Guaidó.