Colombia’s government announced the deployment of 30,000 soldiers along its 2,219-kilometer border with Venezuela, citing security concerns following a United States military operation in Venezuela that led to the detention of Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, who were transferred to New York.

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The announcement was made on Saturday by Angie Rodríguez, director of the Administrative Department of the Presidency of the Republic (Dapre), during a press conference in Cúcuta, capital of the border department of Norte de Santander. The briefing followed the activation of a Unified Command Post (PMU) to address the situation along the frontier.

“The national government has ordered the deployment of 30,000 soldiers on the border with Venezuela, prioritizing critical border areas under a comprehensive and coordinated response scheme involving all Colombian state entities,” Rodríguez said while presenting the conclusions of the meeting.

Defense Minister Pedro Sánchez Suárez, who also spoke at the press conference, described the border situation as one of “high tension,” citing the presence of illegal armed groups that could seek to take advantage of developments in Venezuela.

According to Sánchez, the large-scale military deployment is intended to “provide a coordinated response to the threats in the region (…) mainly the ELN drug cartel and the Tren de Aragua,” both designated by the United States as foreign terrorist organizations.

“With regard to militarization, it responds to the persistent threats against the Colombian state, which correspond to transnational organized crime. Colombia’s threat is not nations; it is transnational crime that seeks to take that poison (drugs) to consumer countries and destabilize the region,” the minister said.

Sánchez added that the operation involves not only ground forces but also “aerial and riverine capabilities, and if we look a bit further toward the sea, maritime capabilities as well.”

Colombia and Venezuela share a 2,219-kilometer land border extending from the Caribbean to the Amazon, much of it sparsely populated. The defense minister said the deployment is coordinated with five additional Unified Command Posts activated at the regional level in the border departments of La Guajira, Cesar, Norte de Santander, Arauca, and Vichada.

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