Seasick and vomiting aboard fishing boats packed with guns, ammo and two-way radios, the ragtag band of fighters—including two American veterans of the Iraq war—made their way from Colombia to the Caribbean coast of Venezuela.

But their plan to arrest Venezuela’s authoritarian government and free political prisoners collapsed before they hit shore. The two-boat invasion force, made up mostly of Venezuelan military defectors, ran into helicopter gunships, snipers and even irate fishermen. The Venezuelan government said it has captured 13 “terrorists” and killed another eight.

On Tuesday, questions were swirling around the true nature of the amphibious landing as soldiers mopped up what was left of the tiny invading force that, according to President Trump, had received no U.S. support.

Speaking to a Spanish-language online TV outlet in Miami over the weekend, Jordan Goudreau, a former Special Forces soldier who now runs a private security company, called Silvercorp USA in Melbourne, Fla., took responsibility for the raid that he said involved about 60 men whom he called “freedom fighters.”

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