“We neither package nor manufacture” narcotics, the director of the Venezuelan company indicated by Petro responded to Petro. The chemical distribution company Primazol denied that a fire at its plant was related to a United States attack on Venezuelan soil.
Comments on Colombian President Gustavo Petro’s networks fueled rumors about an alleged US attack against that factory located on Venezuelan soil.
On Monday, Trump said that US attacks had destroyed a Venezuelan dock allegedly used for drug trafficking, but the president did not offer details of the event or the location of what would be, if confirmed, the first attack on land since the escalation against Venezuela began.
Caracas has not commented on the matter.
Rumors on social networks linked the comments to a fire that occurred on December 24 in one of the chemical wholesaler’s warehouses.
This Tuesday, Petro stated on his social networks that “Trump bombed a factory in Maracaibo”, the second city in Venezuela and close to Colombia, which also coincides with the location of Primazol. “We fear that they mix the coca paste there to make it cocaine,” he added.
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“President Petro, here we neither package nor manufacture any type of narcotics,” the head of Primazol, Eduardo Siu, reacted on social networks. “We need you to please stop tarnishing our name and our honor,” he asked even though Petro did not mention the company.
The businessman explained that the fire occurred in a warehouse where flammable resins were stored.
“We categorically reject all the false accusations that are being made and that are tarnishing my name,” he exclaimed in a video also broadcast by the state channel VTV.
Before Petro’s statements, numerous rumors circulated on social media claiming that the fire was due to an American attack.
Trump said on Monday that in the US attack “there was a large explosion in the dock area, where the boats are loaded with drugs,” without specifying details. The burned Primazol warehouses are located about 7 kilometers from the docks of Lake Maracaibo.
A ground attack is unprecedented in Washington’s military escalation, which mobilized a flotilla of military ships and combat aircraft to the Caribbean, ordered an informal closure of Venezuelan airspace and has seized at least two sanctioned ships that set sail from Venezuela.
Maracaibo is considered the oil capital of Venezuela, a strategic point in the midst of the crisis with the United States. Journalists have confirmed the presence of at least four oil tankers near its bay, despite the embargo.
Venezuela has denounced that these operations do not seek to combat drug trafficking, as Washington claims, but rather to overthrow President Nicolás Maduro and seize the country’s wealth.
