Two former U.S. soldiers who participated in Operation Gideon, an act that aimed to overthrow the Venezuelan government, have been sentenced to 20 years in prison after admitting to the crimes, Venezuelan Attorney General Tarek William Saab announced on Twitter on Friday night. 

Luke Alexander Denman, 34, and Airan Berry, 41, had "confessed to having committed the crimes of conspiracy, association, illicit trafficking in weapons of war and terrorism" over an attempted invasion, allegedly aimed at toppling President Nicolas Maduro, the prosecutor said. 

Denman and Berry were captured in May along with six Venezuelan nationals in a boat carrying weapons off the coast of the central state of Aragua.   

Maduro claimed it was a plot to assassinate him and install opposition leader Juan Guaido in his place, and Caracas has accused U.S. President Donald Trump of being directly responsible for the raid, in which eight attackers were allegedly killed.  

The Venezuelan leader has described the raid as a "remake" of the failed 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion, when Cuban exiles covertly financed and directed by the U.S. government attempted to overthrow then Cuban leader Fidel Castro.

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But the United States has denied any involvement in the Venezuela incident.  

"If I wanted to go into Venezuela I wouldn't make a secret about it," Trump said in an interview with Fox News shortly after.  

Maduro has also accused Guaido – who in January 2019 declared himself acting president in a direct challenge to Maduro's authority – of being Trump's accomplice in planning the invasion, a charge Guaido denies.  

The U.S. army has confirmed that Denman and Berry are former members of the Green Berets who were deployed to Iraq.  

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has said the Trump administration would work to repatriate Denman and Berry. The U.S. will "use every tool that we have available to try to get them back," he told reporters in May.  

(With input from AFP, Xinhua)

(Cover: Members of Venezuela's special forces unit watch an empty boat at a shore, after the Venezuelan government announced a failed "mercenary" incursion, in Macuto, Venezuela, May 3, 2020. /Reuters)