The Minister for Interior Relations, Justice, and Peace, Diosdado Cabello, provided an overview of the latest investigations into terrorist groups that aimed to sabotage the regional and legislative elections on Sunday, May 25.
He reported on the nearly 60 attacks on the oil industry, financed by drug trafficking, which were neutralized thanks to the efforts of the Bolivarian National Armed Forces and PDVSA authorities. They also attacked a power station in San Felipe, Yaracuy state:
«Nearly 60 attacks on oil facilities were neutralized in the last 10 days. I will not say how they were neutralized so as not to give information to the enemies of the homeland. At the end of the day, they decided to attack a power station in San Felipe,» said Minister Cabello.
«First, I thank the state security agencies and officials who participated in dismantling and neutralizing these groups, so we can end the May 25th protests peacefully, with no violence or negative events generated by terrorist groups within the Venezuelan opposition. It was an organized and joint effort,» he said.
He asserted that the opposition will not stop carrying out these types of actions because he considers that “It is their nature.»
Guanipa was arrested on May 23, accused of being «one of the leaders» of the terrorist group that planned to attack the country.
Groups disguised as alleged human rights defenders:
The minister also indicated that were carried out new raids in Los Teques, where they seized a suitcase full of weapons: «We don’t care if they come up with the story that they are human rights defenders. It’s pure nonsense. No one who calls themselves a human rights defender can think of planting explosives,» he stated.
He accused the NGOs Maracaibo Posible, Provea, Foro Penal, and Médicos Unidos de Venezuela of having ties to destabilizing groups.
«People who are actively working with them… This is on one of Juan Pablo Guanipa’s phones,» emphasized the Vice President for Politics, Citizen Security, and Peace.
He then recalled that a drug trafficking gang has been dismantled in Zulia state, where more than 400 rifles and weapons of war seized at various events, many of them originating in the US, were seized.
Following the arrests, security forces conducted interrogations that led to the discovery of meetings held with extremists María Corina Machado and José Enrique Rincón, in which Iván Simonovis and politicians from Zulia state also participated.
«Let’s remember the farce of the little blue bag and those acts of little public presence, supporting them and resorting to violence. We’ve been working for a month and a half on this sabotage operation, which they themselves declared was going to boycott the elections, but the people took it upon themselves to prove otherwise,» he told the press.