Caracas, August 24 (teleSUR-RHC)-- Venezuelan authorities arrested ten paramilitaries during the third day since Venezuelan armed forces were deployed in Tachira state, under the state of exception declared on Friday night.

President Nicolas Maduro issued the state of exception less than 48-hours after three Venezuelan soldiers were attacked by paramilitaries along the Colombian border. During the 60-day state of exception, the Venezuelan government hopes to combat illegal activities along the border including the paramilitaries and illegal smuggling.

Tachira state governor Jose Gregorio Vielma Mora announced they had discovered at least 500 sites where sexual exploitation – including minors – was taking place, and more than a thousand undocumented immigrants had been returned home.
       
Mora said there are hundreds of children who have no identification or birth certificates, and "many are used as mules to cross rivers and smuggle over food.”

Mora commented that the Colombian former president Alvaro Uribe "carries a burden on his shoulders for the great many dead" as a result of Colombian paramilitary activity in Venezuela. "He can do what he wants on his side of Colombia, but not on our border," he said.