As an immediate measure, he announced the total suspension of flights from Colombia. Photo: @ConElMazoDando
38 people linked to Colombian drug trafficking and sabotage plots with explosives against institutions, hospitals, and public figures have been arrested.
Caracas, May 19 (RHC)-- The Vice President of the Sector for Policy, Citizen Security, and Peace, Diosdado Cabello, denounced this Monday a new conspiracy and terrorism plot in Venezuela, with the arrest of 38 people, 17 of them foreigners, linked to plots to sabotage the regional elections. These actions reportedly include attacks with explosives against embassies, hospitals, police commandos, and public figures from both the Chavista and opposition parties.
Cabello asserted that these groups are trying to create an international scenario that discredits the Venezuelan electoral process, claiming that the country "does not have the conditions for voting," when the electoral schedule "has been fully met."
"I must thank the opposition's smoke sellers, because when they talk about signs, we detect the information and act to stop their attacks," he declared at a press conference.
The senior official indicated that among those arrested are explosives experts, coyotes, and mercenaries, several of them from Colombia, and revealed that those captured were carrying devices known as "electric detonators."
As an immediate measure, he announced the total suspension of flights from Colombia, after stating that the terrorists were entering "as tourists" to carry out attacks.
Cabello also directly linked former presidents Álvaro Uribe and Iván Duque to these actions and denounced the involvement of drug trafficking groups and paramilitary camps in Ecuador, where some of those involved had allegedly trained.
He also mentioned that one of those arrested is a Colombian citizen of Albanian origin, wanted internationally for drug trafficking, who was carrying a legally issued Colombian weapon.
Another of those named is Iván Simonovis, whom Cabello identified as the conspirators' operational leader abroad. He also mentioned a Venezuelan official with U.S. government protection who is directly linked to the plot.
"The instructions are clear: maximum caution, nerves of steel. While we are here, several sites in Caracas and other regions are being raided as part of the investigations," Cabello warned, while reiterating that the government will continue its efforts to guarantee peace and stability in the country in the face of these threats.
