Venezuelan Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello announced this Monday the deployment of 15,000 military personnel to the border region with Colombia to strengthen security and combat drug trafficking.
In particular, he highlighted the creation of a “rapid response unit” and the activation of “Peace Zone #1” in Zulia and Táchira, where drones, boats, aircraft, and other vehicles will be used to guard the border.
“Our President has decided to immediately activate Peace Zone #1, which includes the states of Táchira and Zulia, and has ordered a major operational reinforcement of what already exists there because we have been operating for quite some time, deployed with URRA (Rapid Combat Reaction Units) and with specific military and police operations,” he explained.
President Nicolás Maduro’s deputy has stated that “we should be at around 70 to 80 percent of the drug seizures that are trying to pass through Venezuela.”
“We have seized an extraordinary amount of drugs this year, an amount that exceeds any estimate. They know it internally (…). Anyone who tries to pass drugs through Venezuela knows they will face a resounding response (…). Venezuela will not be a territory for drug trafficking,” he emphasized.
Furthermore, he revealed that the Bolivarian National Armed Forces (FANB) dismantled a shipyard this weekend for the construction of submarines for drug trafficking in the state of Delta Amacuro. “We arrested some Colombian citizens who are experts in fiber for the manufacture of these vessels. They are talking about who brought them,” he said.
Cabello also referred to opposition leader María Corina Machado, whom he once again linked to violent plots and conspiracies and accused of having ties to international drug trafficking.
“The Jalisco Cartel has contact with María Corina Machado, not with the government. Colombian drug traffickers and paramilitaries have contact with her through (Álvaro) Uribe and (Iván) Duque,” he said, referring to two former Colombian presidents.
