Under the outgoing government of Iván Duque, Colombian intelligence developed an extensive espionage operation within the Bolivarian National Armed Forces (Fanb), according to documents published by Raya magazine, published in the neighboring country.
In a work entitled “International Espionage: Objective Venezuela”, it is revealed that the purpose of Colombian intelligence was to create “a Cold War scenario between the two countries.” The operation was baptized with the name of Genesis and spies participated in it who even accessed the server of the Ministry of Defense and entered the Venezuelan consulate in Cartagena to steal documents.
Colombian intelligence knew in depth the situation of the conflict that arose in Apure in the first months of 2021, which involved the mobilization of troops towards the plains entity. According to documents published by Raya, it was “another of the destabilization plans with the aim of influencing the Bolivarian Army to carry out military operations against the ELN.”
“For this purpose, the Colombian spies set out to prepare apocryphal ELN pamphlets and audios ordering “settlements” against the Venezuelan Armed Forces. The intelligence document also adds a photo of an original ELN pamphlet from 2015 which would be taken as an example to prepare the fictitious one,” the magazine notes.
overflights
Colombian spies also accessed reports revealing that “about 24 overflights” were detected by the radars of the Venezuelan Integral Aerospace Defense. That segment of the work published in the Colombian magazine is presented as “Trump’s Provocation.”
One of the events that the magazine includes in this provocation occurred on May 14, 2019, the day the Comprehensive Aerospace Defense Command of Venezuela (Codai) detected an EP-3 aircraft from the United States.
The report of the Colombian spies says that “the aircraft entered without making a report with the Venezuelan air traffic agencies, for which it was considered an operational risk for the circulation of aircraft under the responsibility of the Maiquetía Control Center; Faced with this situation, the alert was activated and the order was given for the Fanb Fighter aircraft to take off towards the north of Los Roques Island, carrying out a Combat Air Patrol with the intention of accompanying and visually identifying the EP- 3″.
The aerial maneuver deployed by the Fanb planes pushed the US plane back from La Guaira airspace, causing it to return to the Guantánamo base, Cubo, from where it had taken off, the spies pointed out, who also described a similar incident that occurred on 10 May 2019 but with the presence north of La Guaira of the USS CG JAMES, attached to the United States Coast Guard service.
To counteract this situation, the Bolivarian Navy mobilized the Venezuelan oceanic patrol boats PO-13 Yekuana and Kariña. Through the maritime radio, a message was sent to the US ship inviting it to withdraw. Sukhonis-30 planes were standing by waiting for an order.
