I thought for a while that the most likely situation was that these two guys in particular were caught up in something else. A "wrong place, wrong time" thing.

I thought for a while that the most likely situation was that these two guys in particular were caught up in something else. A "wrong place, wrong time" thing. Maybe they were down there on an ill-advised vacation, or maybe they were hired to train some private security force. I would have even bought that they were hired to train a group that intended to stage a coup, whether they knew it or not. ... but then I find that the CEO of Silvercorp has claimed them, and has been tweeting about it. I can't think of a single reasonable circumstance that fits all the facts we know about this. As crazy as it all looks, I can't come up with a theory that seems more likely than "the Venezuelan government is telling the truth".