SpaceWar.com - Your World At War
Venezuela says eight civilians killed by armed groups
Caracas, Feb 11 (AFP) Feb 11, 2022
Eight civilians were killed by armed groups in recent days in Venezuela's restive southwest region that borders Colombia, the country's defense minister said Friday.

Vladimir Padrino also said that nine "terrorists" had been killed and 56 captured in military operations in Apure state without the loss of "one single" soldier.

"Unfortunately, last week we received news of eight civilian deaths," Padrino said in a press conference.

He also played a video denouncing the use of "improvised" land mines by armed groups, but did not say if they were the cause of the civilian deaths.

The military operations were aimed at expelling Colombian gangs the government describes as "armed drug-trafficking terrorists."

Left-wing Colombian rebels freely cross the porous 2,000-kilometer border between the two countries.

Bogota accuses Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro of providing shelter for dissidents of the disbanded Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and militants belonging to the National Liberation Army (ELN).

The two groups are among numerous armed militants battling for control of drug-trafficking routes through Colombia.

Caracas denies the accusations.

Padrino said authorities seized 1,200 kilograms of cocaine and 800 kilograms of marihuana, dismantled 16 camps and confiscated three airplanes and numerous assault rifles in the operations.

In March 2021, 16 soldiers died in clashes between the Venezuelan military and Colombian rebels that also left thousands of civilians displaced.

Javier Tarazona, a Venezuelan activist from an NGO that reports on such clashes and accuses the government of links to FARC dissidents, has been held since July 2021.

On Thursday, Colombian authorities said four people traveling in a truck close to the border were killed by attackers on motorcycles.

The victims were themselves armed but seemingly did not have time to react to the attack. Authorities are yet to determine who were the perpetrators and victims of the attack.


ADVERTISEMENT




Space News from SpaceDaily.com
China Focus: Chinese scientist details first planned Mars sample-return mission Tianwen 3
NASA says it will lose about 20 percent of its workforce
Building blocks of life found in distant star system suggest origins in interstellar space

24/7 Energy News Coverage
Trump administration expected to say greenhouse gases aren't harmful
MicroCarb satellite launches to map global carbon dioxide emissions from space
Rollable solar array by GalaxySpace redefines satellite compactness and power efficiency

Military Space News, Nuclear Weapons, Missile Defense
Airbus CO3D satellites begin mission to generate high precision global 3D map
BlackSky to supply satellite imagery and analytics for Latin American security operations
GovSat selects Thales Alenia Space to build secure satellite for military communications

24/7 News Coverage
First wildfire images reveal FireSat's unmatched detection capabilities
MetOp Second Generation satellite fully fuelled ahead of August launch
MicroCarb satellite launch marks new era in urban carbon tracking



All rights reserved. Copyright Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse.