Maduro’s regime threatened Colombia with “strong reaction” after border incidents

Nicolás Maduro’s regime threatened Colombia with the use of force on Wednesday after accusing the neighboring country of alleged complicity with a dissident faction of the extinct FARC guerrillas. who has been fighting since the weekend with the Venezuelan armed forces.

“The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela will effectively guarantee peace in the national territory and ratify that any attempt to violate the territorial integrity of Venezuela, whether conventional or secret, by an armed organization, regular or irregular, will have a strong reaction” . the Foreign Ministry wrote in a statement.

The accusations of the Chavist dictatorship are baseless. What is true is that since the weekend more than 3,000 people have arrived in Colombia to flee the fighting in Venezuela..

According to Guaidó’s representative in Colombia, Tomás Guanipa, the weekend clashes were the consequence of Maduro’s ordered attack on a dissident faction fighting against one believed to be supported by his government.

“Maduro does not fight terrorism, he conforms to the line of his heaviest allies (…), because according to the information that we handle, they are the ones who asked him to attack dissidents they did not ‘couldn’t control, “he said.

“Since Sunday morning, we have started to witness in the municipality of Arauquita (northeast) a massive displacement of the fleeing population (…) the bombings that took place on the other side of the border, ”said Lucas Gómez, presidential delegate for border control.

“On Monday’s holiday we already had about a thousand people and yesterday it increased and we hit a figure of 3,100,” he added to Blu Radio.

For its part, The Colombian Ministry of Foreign Affairs expressed concern at the “serious humanitarian effects on civil society in Apure State (Venezuela)”., consequence of armed clashes.

Maduro’s regime rejected these statements by the Colombian Foreign Ministry and accused the Duque government of abandoning the borders and giving alleged tacit consent to the actions of FARC factions. However, The facts show that these armed groups take refuge in Venezuela when they are persecuted and attacked by the Colombian army.

According to Colombian authorities, the exodus could intensify, because on Tuesday evening “there were major clashes between what could be a battalion of the Venezuelan guard and FARC dissidents” who strayed from the agreement of peace signed in 2016.

The Defensoría del Pueblo (Ombudsman) indicated that among the displaced there were at least 858 minors, 134 over 60 and 52 pregnant women.

Colombia has set up sports spaces and installed 500 tents to accommodate them, but appealed to the international community to support the reception of these people.

Iván Duque’s government accuses Maduro of harboring and protecting National Liberation Army (ELN) guerrillas and dissidents in its territory, which Caracas denies.

“Welcoming bandits can become a big problem at some point. I believe that they are experiencing the difficulties of having on their territory these structures which have profited and which have spent years of impunity in Venezuela ”, declared the person in charge of the borders.

With information from AFP

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