The minister offered details of two operations, which were intended to attack a military base and a military fort, located about three hours from Caracas. Photo: Con el Mazo Dando
Caracas, February 15 (RHC)-- The Minister of the Interior, Justice and Peace of Venezuela, Diosdado Cabello, revealed the terrorist plans that were dismantled before the inauguration of President Nicolás Maduro on January 10 and offered new details of Operation Aurora.
On his radio program Sin Truco Ni Maña, which he hosts together with Venezuelan deputy Tania Díaz, the minister offered details of two operations, which had the purpose of attacking a military base and a military fort, located about three hours from Caracas.
According to Cabello, one of the operations, which has been named Operation Aurora, had begun in 2019 with plans to attack military forces in Venezuela, especially the fort located in the capital of the state of Guárico, San Juan de Los Morros.
At the end of December 2019, this operation had as its protagonists deserting soldiers who participated in the attempted invasion by Colombia and also arrived by Brazil, given the proximity of one of the military forts to the Brazilian border, in the state of Bolívar.
After the failure of this operation, the mercenaries returned to Brazil, where they were protected by the government of former President Jair Bolsonaro.
Six years later, the Venezuelan government discovered that the same mercenaries who participated in that attempt were participating in another attack on that same military fort, and they were sure that the explosives they had placed in 2019 were still there, but they did not count on the fact that it had already been moved to another place.
"They are the same ones from Operation Aurora. Operation Aurora was in the state of Bolívar, far from Ciudad Bolívar and Puerto Ordaz. That was on December 22, 2019, when a group of mercenaries who had deserted from the Armed Forces, who came from Brazil, mounted this operation of attacks against a fort and failed," Cabello said.
According to Cabello, if the military arsenal left by the mercenaries had not been moved, the dead would still be counted in Venezuela.
On the other hand, he indicated that the mercenaries also planned to blow up a helicopter over the state of Barinas, birthplace of Commander Hugo Chávez. This was what figures of the Venezuelan extreme right, such as María Corina Machado, were referring to when they spoke of a signal coming from the sky, as a sign for all the dormant cells to wake up.
So far, some 18 people have been arrested, while three remain on the run.
On the other hand, the minister also referred to the dismantling of a financial network linked to the opposition, through the capture of Luis Somaza, who was accused of handling funds from Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) and operating with coyotes to generate acts of destabilization against Venezuela.
"Luis Somaza was arrested, a very perverse character, a criminal, who was the one who controlled the money of the NGOs, of Juan Guaidó and Leopoldo López in the first instance," as well as of María Corina Machado.
In this regard, he said that the Venezuelan government reached Somaza thanks to the dismantling of the network of coyotes that operated with this character.
