The Minister of People’s Power for Science and Technology, Gabriela Jiménez Ramírez, denounced this Wednesday through her account on Telegram the destruction of five research centers of the Venezuelan Institute of Scientific Research (IVIC), as a consequence of a brutal and criminal military attack perpetrated by the United States (USA) against Venezuela last January 3rd.
The minister and also the sectoral Vice President for Science, Technology, Ecosocialism and Health, detailed that the US missiles impacted and devastated the centers for Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, Ecology, and the Nuclear Technology Unit. These spaces, fundamental for the training of young scientists at the Dr. Humberto Fernández-Morán National University of Sciences, housed servers and essential equipment for national computer networks, which were «completely devastated.»
«The attack has been total,» affirmed Jiménez Ramírez, noting that IVIC was targeted by two missiles whose fragments «evidence the imperial hatred against Venezuela’s sovereign technological development.» She stressed that these laboratories, for decades, have trained the professionals who sustain the nation’s health, engineering, and oil sovereignty.
«It is an unprecedented act of imperial aggression against the people of Venezuela. There is no justification whatsoever for attacking a sanctuary of science, a place that has provided historical answers to the country and the world,» she expressed with indignation.
The minister linked this attack to an escalation of the war, which includes the vile kidnapping of the Constitutional President, Nicolás Maduro Moros, and the First Lady Cilia Flores, in an attempt to break the will of the nation. She paid tribute to those who fell in this aggression and reaffirmed the unwavering commitment to IVIC as a temple for the country’s development.
Immediate Reconstruction and Technical Evidence:
Following the instructions of the Acting President of the Republic, Delcy Rodríguez, the minister announced the immediate start of the reconstruction of the destroyed facilities: “IVIC will continue to be an epicenter for the generation of new knowledge. We shall prevail!” she emphasized.
For his part, Dr. Alberto Quintero, Vice Minister for the Application of Scientific Knowledge and director of IVIC, presented in the video published on Telegram the preliminary findings of the technical investigation. He explained that the attack was carried out with an AGM-154C-1 type missile, a precision-guided glide bomb more than four meters long, designed with infrared technology and a data link to attack moving targets.
“It was also evidenced the use of strategic bombing aircraft capable of neutralizing radar systems with stealth technology,” detailed Quintero, who described the events as “acts of terrorism and crimes against humanity.”
A call to the global scientific community:
Vice Minister Quintero urged the national and international scientific community to strongly condemn this aggression, which threatens peace and uses knowledge as a tool of war and destruction of communities.
The destruction of IVIC marks a dark chapter in the imperial aggression against Venezuela, directly attacking the future, cognitive sovereignty, and scientific development of the nation.