Colombian Defense Minister Diego Molano denounced that the Bolivarian National Armed Forces of Venezuela is mobilizing troops to the border with Colombia with the support and technical assistance of Russia and Iran.
El Político
This was what Molano said on Thursday after describing the possible deployment as a "foreign interference."
The official did not reveal evidence, but citing intelligence sources, he assured that the mobilization took place on the Venezuelan side in front of the department of Arauca, the scene of a violent confrontation for the control of drug trafficking between the guerrillas of the National Liberation Army (ELN) and dissidents from the FARC that rejected a peace agreement, reported Voz de America.
“Foreign interference on the edge of the border. By intelligence we have the information that on the other side there are these confrontations that the ELN has, allied with the second Marquetalia, to remove the dissidents from the FARC,” Molano told journalists at a press conference on the sidelines of an international anti-drug congress. .
"We know that some men and units of the Bolivarian Military Force have also been mobilized towards the border with the support and technical assistance of Russia and with the support and technical assistance of Iran, there on the other side of the border," the official added. .
Molano explained that the confrontations for the control of drug trafficking and illicit economies began in the state of Apure, Venezuelan territory, and spread to Colombia.
"The situation in Arauca does not originate in Arauca, but on the other side of the border," said the minister, explaining that the ELN, united with the Second Marquetalia, a FARC dissidence, are facing another faction of the former Armed Forces. Revolutionary Armies rejected the 2016 peace agreement.
Complaint from the Colombian Ombudsman
The Colombian Ombudsman’s Office revealed that the confrontation between rival illegal armed groups left 66 dead and 1,200 displaced in the department of Arauca, in January alone, reported Asuntos Legales.
The violence in that oil and cattle-producing region of Colombia continues despite the fact that in early January President Iván Duque ordered the dispatch of more Army troops in an effort to assume territorial control and put an end to the bloodshed.
The Venezuelan Defense Minister, General Vladimir Padrino, with a "My God" denied the accusations on his Twitter account and reiterated his criticism of Colombia for its closeness to the United States.
The Government of Colombia accuses the Venezuelan president, Nicolás Maduro, of protecting dissidents from the FARC and the ELN in the territory of the oil nation, although the socialist president insistently denies this.
The two countries share a porous 2,219-kilometer border with the presence of illegal armed groups.
