CARACAS, April 5 (NNN-PRENSA LATINA) — Venezuelan Vice President for Policy, Citizen Security, and Peace, Diosdado Cabello, today offered a new assessment of Operation Relámpago del Catatumbo, which resulted in the seizure of more than 16,308 kilos of high-purity cocaine.
In a press conference, he explained in detail the actions carried out in recent months that led to the arrest of numerous suspects, including five new mayors of the area, linked to or related to drug trafficking and the mafias operating in the state of Zulia.
As part of the investigations, he also mentioned the involvement of 120 new companies associated with money laundering from drug trafficking and corruption.
He also stated that investigations are continuing to determine the alleged links between drug trafficking and Zulia police officers, the National Police, and the Bolivarian National Armed Forces (FANB), some of whom have been detained.
The Minister of the Interior, Justice, and Peace stated that this is a conspiracy, drug trafficking, and corruption scheme that security agencies have been combatting for months in this northwestern Venezuelan region, on the border with Colombia.
He noted that various security agencies have dismantled criminal groups dedicated to drug trafficking, in addition to dismantling several narco-paramilitary camps and seizing logistics used to produce equipment for transporting narcotics and other substances.
The investigations also led to the destruction of organizations linked to the fascist far-right and other associated structures that sought to disrupt the constitutional order through destabilization and violent actions. He reiterated the allegation that funding for right-wing groups comes from drug trafficking and paramilitaries originating in Colombia, with former presidents Álvaro Uribe and Iván Duque as their main sponsors.
There is sufficient evidence of these former presidents’ ties to opposition leader María Corina Machado, he stated, and emphasized that the drugs seized in Venezuela come from Colombia because “they want to use Venezuelan territory to attack our country.”
He also alluded to these groups’ plans to establish a “false flag” to attack the FANB (National Armed Forces of Venezuela) and its Navy, and ruled out the possibility that Venezuela could become “a platform for drug trafficking,” as the enemies of the Revolution intend.
“What we are doing in Zulia is serious,” and whoever is involved, regardless of their name, will be brought to justice,” he reaffirmed, and assured that the main beneficiaries of these operations will also be targeted. — NNN-PRENSA LATINA
