In 2019, some 1,500 Venezuelans deserted their country’s army and police and moved to Colombian territory.
The Venezuelan army detained 39 deserters who had attempted to enter the country across the border with Colombia. This was reported by Minister of Defense of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela Vladimir Padrino Lopez on Thursday on state television.
“We detained 39 deserters during an attempt to cross the border, who we believe were going to participate in a prepared operation [on the armed invasion of Venezuela], funded from abroad”, – said the head of the agency. Last year about 1.5 thousand Venezuelans defected from the army and police of their country and moved to Colombian territory.
May 3, Venezuelan authorities reported that they managed to prevent the infiltration of a group of mercenaries from Colombia, who intended to carry out a coup d’état in the Bolivarian Republic and kill the president. Among the detainees were two American citizens. On State television, the Venezuelan leader showed their documents to Luke Alexander Denman and Ayran Berry. The first of them told during the interrogation that he and his accomplices were to take control of the airport and bring Maduro there to take him to the United States.
U.S. President Donald Trump said that Washington had nothing to do with a group of people arrested in Venezuela, and that the U.S. would not hide the fact of the operation against this country if it was planned.