As part of the protection of the country’s producers and business associations, the president of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro Moros, asked to redouble the effort to guarantee greater efficiency in the border control processes and understanding with shops and supermarkets; all of this in order to protect the industry and the population from the smuggling of national goods and services.
To this end, he ordered the Minister of People’s Power for Defense, Vladimir Padrino López, and the Minister for National Commerce, Dheliz Álvarez, “a plan to fight against the smuggling that permeates our borders,” detailing that among the areas affected by this scourge are included: processed foods, alcoholic and soft drinks, medications, auto parts, plastics and manufacturing.
In this sense, Minister Padrino López highlighted that, through the “Operación Mano de Hierro” (Operation Iron Hand), there are already results. He said that after several meetings with trade associations, “an important path was opened to stop these deviations and protect the national industry.”
He reported that multidisciplinary outposts were created to retain, as part of the new offensive of the national government, any deviations that may exist.
In this sense, the head of state affirmed that the Venezuelan authorities are going to control and “extirpate” this practice of smuggling in all its phases: border crossing, roads, places of sale and illegal distribution of products.
