39 soldiers captured for failed incursion in Venezuela

The arrests of military deserters in Venezuela continue: with 39 today, there are 91 arrests in the case. Eight deaths were recorded in clashes on May 3, according to the official version.

Venezuelan authorities captured 39 military “deserters” on the border with Colombia this Thursday, the Defense Minister reported, General Vladimir Padrino Lópezbringing the number of those arrested on charges linked to a frustrated “armed incursion” into the oil country reaches 91.

“We have captured” 39 deserters from the Bolivarian National Armed Forces (FANB), trying to enter the Colombian border, “Padrino said in a state television broadcast.

Godfather said he assumed that those arrested “came to fulfill” a “task as part of the general scheme” of the failed operation that the government of Nicolás Maduro claims to have disarticulated on May 3 and 4 in the coastal towns of Macuto and Chuao, in the northern Venezuela.

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It was “an incursion by sea” and “another by land,” he said.

Godfather did not elaborate on the dissidents captured on Thursday and did not explain why they would have tried to enter Venezuela by land despite the failure of the reported sea raid almost two weeks ago.

With these arrests, there are 91 arrests for the case. Eight deaths were recorded in clashes on May 3, according to the official version.

Although the socialist government labeled the events from the beginning as “an invasion”, Godfather rejected that term, although he indicated that they respond to “a very well-planned military operation” with “foreign financing”.

Those detained include retired US military officers Luke Alexander Denman, 34, and Airan Berry, 41, who were indicted on other terrorism charges, punishable by between 25 and 30 years in prison in Venezuela.

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The detained Venezuelans, meanwhile, have been accused of “conspiracy with a foreign government” – specifically the United States and Colombia – and other crimes.

The plan, according to the Maduro government, sought the “capture, arrest and removal” of the socialist president and the “installation” of Juan Guaidó, an opposition parliamentary leader recognized as the president in charge of Venezuela for fifty countries, led by the United States.

Washington and Bogotá have denied their participation. Tensions between Venezuela and Colombia, which share a porous 2,200-kilometer border, have been escalating.

In February 2019, Maduro severed relations with the neighboring country after Colombian President Iván Duque backed Guaidó in his attempt to displace the Chavista ruler.