Defense Ministry reaffirms Colombia’s readiness for international conflict

The tensions on the Colombian border with Venezuela, at the height of the department of Arauca, are more and more palpable. As members of the Bolivarian National Armed Forces from the neighboring country continue to fight Iván Mordisco’s dissent, the national government continues to step up the military presence in the region. and make sure you are prepared for any situation that may arise.

This was reiterated this Saturday afternoon by the Minister of Defense, Diego Molano Aponte, who went to the border area of ​​Distraction, in La Guajira, accompanied by the military leadership to review the the capabilities of the medium combined arms task force of the National Army, of Mechanized Cavalry Group No. 2, also known as the “ Colonel Juan José Rondón ” unit, established in 2015.

According to the minister, it is “This exercise, which is done regularly, what I was looking for was to determine the capabilities, the training that our national army has in border areas and in particular in La Guajira ”.

Of the notices, at least those posted via the security portfolio’s Twitter account, The capabilities of the 8×8 type vehicles manufactured in Canada available to the armed forces of this military base have been observed. These, reports the same publication, weigh 20.5 tons and develop speeds of up to 100 kilometers per hour. Likewise, missiles and other long-range non-mobile weapons have been observed.

This unit, the ministry added, has artillery, special squadrons, Black Hawk helicopters, Spike anti-tank systems, fire systems, Cascabel and Gladiator vehicles. With these, the “deployment and maneuver capabilities” of Colombian soldiers were assessed.

During the official ceremony following the examination, Molano declared that “in the four cardinal points of Colombia, from La Guajira to the Amazon, without truce, Our army is defending the Colombians and defending our borders, no matter what the threat.Said the official.

He also added that the Combined Arms Working Group is fully dedicated to ensuring the tranquility of Colombians and protecting them from any situation that interferes with their security, no matter where the danger comes from. Immediately afterwards, the ministry’s Twitter account published a message that had already been heard from Molano a week ago: “Colombia is ready to respond to any international threat.”

The minister pronounced a similar sentence on the newspaper El Tiempo on April 10, when the said media were questioned about the security situation on the Colombian-Venezuelan border. “Our military and police forces are ready to act to defend sovereignty over our territory. We are ready and ready to protect the Araucanians and all Colombians on this side of the border, ”were his specific words regarding the possibility of armed conflict between the two countries.

It was in this same exchange that the head of the security portfolio said that the disputes in the Venezuelan state of Apure had to do with an offer to control the drug trafficking routes in that region, where the forces of the Colombian National Liberation Army, ELN; and different groups of FARC dissidents: those of “Iván Mordisco” and “Gentil Duarte” in Arauquita and those of “Iván Márquez”, with “Santrich” and “Paisa” near Vichada. The latter, he assures, are those who benefit from the support of the Bolivarian armed forces.

“In Miraflores – Palace which serves as the seat of the Venezuelan Government -, the decision taken was to attack in an complicit and selective manner only dissidents close to ‘Iván Mordisco’, to submit them to the ‘Narcotalia’, and that there would be a unity of command not only to continue the drug trafficking in Venezuela, but to continue to venture and seek again its expansion in Colombia ”, a- he assured about the conflict which leaves 6,000 displaced people and the Arauca department in a state of public calamity.

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