The president of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, denounced this Wednesday an attempt for a new paramilitary incursion, planned by his Colombian counterpart, Iván Duque:
“Iván Duque, President of Colombia, personally supervises camps in Medellín, Antioquia and the northern Santander, of a group of paramilitary mercenaries in order to prepare new incursions against Venezuela. Out of oligarch pride, Duque has said that the maritime incursion plan must be maintained as one of the options”, warned the Venezuelan head of state.
During an award ceremony for the officials who participated in Operation Negro Primero, the National President urged all members of the Bolivarian National Armed Forces (FANB) and the people’s power to remain on alert against these new terrorist actions, which are aimed at destabilizing the nation:
«I tell our people, our FANB, our police forces, stand on guard. Let’s watch the sea, the territory, the airspace, the homeland, so that none of these groups that train in Colombia can harm any institution, any Venezuelan”, urged the Venezuelan president.
In this sense, he asserted that the capacity of prevention and reaction of all officials must be strengthened, as was demonstrated on May 3, when the popular force – along with the FANB officials – achieved to frustrate the first paramilitary incursion, which had as its purpose to carry out a coup d’état and assassinate several leaders of the Bolivarian Revolution, including the Venezuelan head of state:
“Let’s prepare ourselves to have a preventive and active reaction capacity and thus make our Venezuela an impenetrable territory for terrorist groups, mercenaries, criminals, traitors who seek to violate the peace and life of the Republic”, stressed President Nicolás Maduro.
During the activity, President Maduro reported that, of the 62 involved in the terrorist plan, 57 have been detained, including the 20 leaders of the incursion.
The terrorist and paramilitary action was articulated by the United States Office of Drug Administration and Control (DEA), with drug trafficking operators such as the head of the drug cartels in the Colombian Guajira, Elkis López, a.k.a. «Doble Rueda», a protegé of the DEA in that region, according to testimonies of the mercenaries captured on the Venezuelan coast.
Among the detainees are two former US green berets, who confirmed the participation of the United States and Colombia, as well as the right-wing deputy and self-proclaimed “president in charge”, Juan Guaidó.
