BOGOTA, Sep 13 (NNN-AGENCIES) – Venezuela’s attorney general on Friday announced an investigation into opposition leader Juan Guaido’s alleged links with a Colombian paramilitary group.
The investigation was launched after photos were published of Guaido posing with two suspected leaders of the group, allegedly taken the day he crossed into Colombia for a charity concert aimed at helping to bring humanitarian aid into Venezuela in February.
The pictures “confirm the hypothesis that [Guaido] and his entourage maintain relations with these criminal groups,” Attorney General Tarek William Saab said.
Other investigations had already been opened against Guaido, whom Colombia, the United States and dozens of other countries are backing in his campaign to oust President Nicolas Maduro.
The photos indicate that Colombian President Ivan Duque’s government arranged for paramilitaries to help Guaido cross the border, Saab said.
Interior Minister Nestor Reverol said the photos showed that the opposition was cooperating with Colombian paramilitaries to undermine peace in Venezuela.
Guaido denied having links with the group, known as Los Rastrojos, which is believed to engage in drug trafficking and extortion.
Hundreds of photos were taken of Guaido on that day, he said in comments published on Friday by the opposition-dominated National Assembly, which he heads.
“Difficult to discriminate between [people] who ask for a photo,” Guaido said.
“To use these photos to present falsehoods is to play the game of the Maduro regime,” Guaido told Colombia’s Blu Radio.
The two men seen in the photos have since been jailed, and Guaido said he welcomed the move. “[If] they belong to … irregular groups, that’s how it should be,” he said.
Right-wing paramilitary groups are active in several regions of Colombia, where they are often linked to criminal activities and sometimes to politicians.
The furore over the photos came just as tensions were running high between Bogota and Caracas over Venezuelan military exercises near the border. Venezuela accuses Colombia of planning to attack it, an allegation Bogota denies.
Maduro won a second term in an election boycotted by most of the opposition last year and has overseen an economic meltdown. Millions of Venezuelans have fled the crisis abroad.
NNN-AGENCIES
