For seven decades, the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela has faced the aftermath of the Colombian armed conflict with consequences for human lives, the economy and national security, the People’s Power Minister for Foreign Relations, Jorge Arreaza, denounced this Tuesday.
In statements to the press from the Miraflores Palace in Caracas, the Venezuelan Foreign Minister specifically referred to the events that occurred recently in the border state of Apure, from where Colombian armed groups have tried to break into Venezuelan territory for criminal purposes and exercising violence against the civilian population, including the installation of antipersonnel mines.
This operation, which has been repelled by the Bolivarian National Armed Forces (FANB), takes place in the midst of the abandonment by the Colombian State in the more than 2,000 kilometers of border that the two neighboring countries share.
“The helplessness of the border on the Colombian side is almost absolute; We do not know with whom we limit, officially there is the Republic of Colombia and some institutions, but the effective control of the territory with which Venezuela borders is sometimes of a paramilitary group, of a guerrilla group, it is sometimes very scarce of the forces of Colombian security”, he emphasized.
The Minister of Foreign Relations also denounced that the irruption of these irregular groups is limited to a succession of actions that seek to destabilize Venezuelan peace and stability.
“Venezuela is at the center of all matters. They have outsourced the aggression against Venezuela, either -through- a company -of mercenaries-, or by hiring these Colombian groups to disturb stability and peace, to generate a conflict and to enter an incursion there with the aim of causing death and destruction in Venezuela, and overthrowing the revolutionary government by force”, he added after referring to the failed Operation Gideon, planned in Bogotá.
On the other hand, the Head of Venezuelan diplomacy energetically rejected the statements of the Colombian Defense Minister, Diego Molano, according to which “drug trafficking is slowly taking over Venezuela.”
“Drug trafficking has taken Colombia rapidly since the 1980s and every day do so to the fiber of Colombian institutions, of Colombian society, of the Colombian economy more and more. Colombia is a narco-state and no one can deny it, unfortunately”, he replied.
By virtue of these events, the Government of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela has addressed three communications to the United Nations Organization requesting emergency assistance to deactivate the antipersonnel mines installed by Colombian irregular armed groups in the border area, as well as for the agency to investigate Colombian violence against Venezuela.
