Venezuela Denounces Presence of Colombian Paramilitaries

Venezuela’s Defense Minister, Vladimir Padrino López, denounced the presence of Colombian paramilitary forces in the Bolivarian territory for continuously engaging in drug trafficking.

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On Sunday, members of the Armed Forces of Venezuela dismantled a cocaine production and processing laboratory in the state of Tachira. This facility was under exploitation of the Colombian paramilitary group “Los Rastrojos”.

According to reports, 14 members of that organization were also captured in February in the same bordering region. In the operative action, several illegal deposits for fuel trade were deactivated.

On his official Twitter profile, general Padrino Lopez expressed: “Colombia: a delegitimized government, with degraded institutions, a territory sowed with violence and drug trafficking, that walks around in circles, with a trap and its false positives tries with its paramilitary force to use our territory because of its incapacity. They don't fit in here!."

President Nicolas Maduro’s Administration had reiterative on its decision to fight against fuel traffic to Colombia and called on  Ivan Duque’s government to ease the paramilitary access to Venezuelan territory.

For his part, the Venezuelan Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza described Duque as a “drug trafficker and paramilitary subordinate” and condemned the Colombian mandatary's support to violent groups who try to destabilize the security of the Bolivarian nation.  However, those actions have not prospered because of the loyalty of the Venezuelan people to the Bolivarian Revolution and its leader, Nicolas Maduro.

Recently, the Colombian mandatary held a meeting with U.S. president, Donald Trump, where he requested more sanctions and coercive measures against the Venezuelan government and people.   ​​​​​​​