The Minister of People’s Power for Defense, Vladimir Padrino López, said the FANB are ready to take up arms in defense of the country against any aggression that seeks to violate the Venezuelan territory.
“Today this National Bolivarian Armed Forces ratifies to the oligarchies (both national and international) that serve the empire in order to run over our sovereignty, our people, our self-determination as a people, we tell them: Do not lend to trespass even an inch to the Venezuelan territory, because we are going to defend it with the arms of the Republic and with our spirit of patriotic and Bolivarian, Revolutionary and Chavista soldiers”, he said.
The Defense Minister offered these statements in the ceremony commemorating the 30 years of the crisis of the Caldas corvette, an action that generated a diplomatic friction when a Colombian military ship sailed without prior authorization by Venezuelan waters.
Padrino López, thanked the patriotism and the firmness of the officers who defended the Homeland during this episode. He recalled that during the military action the Colombian corvette withdrew from Venezuelan waters, arguing: “we withdraw because we have already fulfilled our mission”, a justification that he described as false and reiterated the words of the Captain of Frigate to the Colombians: “You are abandoning our waters because you are acknowledging that you are in Venezuelan waters, and we do not negotiate our territory evermore”.
During the ceremony were promoted the officers who participated in that heroic deed, among them Navy Captain Alfredo Castañeda Giral, who was in charge of the military operation, who was awarded the Francisco de Miranda medal.
Finally, he called on all the members of the FANB to follow the example of defending the Homeland.
“First the Homeland, learn to be patriotic,” he urged.
