In the last few hours, the Bolivarian National Armed Forces (FANB) of Venezuela neutralized three aircraft linked to drug trafficking in two areas near Colombia, military authorities reported this Tuesday.
Two of the planes were neutralized in the Rómulo Gallegos municipality of Apure state and the other in the Autana municipality of the Amazonas region, all bordering Colombia, indicated the commander of Comprehensive Aerospace Defense, José Luis Tremont.
In a balance of FANB operations broadcast by the state channel Venezolana de Televisión (VTV), the official noted that “a clandestine landing strip” was also recently disabled and 3,000 liters of aircraft fuel were seized.
“The Bolivarian National Armed Forces maintain a frontal and relentless battle against drug trafficking in our territory,” said Tremont.
With these three aircraft, there will be 20 neutralized in 2025, “absolutely all” for “drug trafficking purposes,” said the head of Defense, Vladimir Padrino López, during the assessment.
“That says a lot about our aerospace power, about how we monitor our Venezuelan airspace and how we protect our national sovereignty,” added Padrino López, who also indicated that in recent days “six clandestine runways where these aircraft are destined to land” were destroyed.
These operations have been carried out at the same time that the country faces, as Nicolás Maduro’s government has denounced, a “threat” from the United States, which maintains a naval deployment in the Caribbean Sea near Venezuela under the argument of combating alleged drug trafficking coming from the nation.
However, the Venezuelan Executive insists that this is a plan to promote a “regime change” and impose a “puppet” government, in order to “take over” the natural resources of the Caribbean country, including oil.
With information from Efe.
