The Bolivarian National Armed Forces (FANB) of Venezuela reported this Thursday on the destruction of an aircraft from the island of Cozumel, in Mexico, after it entered the country's airspace without permission.
The strategic operational commander of the military forces, Domingo Hernández Lárez, has assured that it was a white twin-engine Gulfstream device, with V-GRS license plates, and has described it as an “invading plane.”
The official has assured that the ship was detected by radars and entered the territory without permission and that a "defense plan" was activated to "destroy the hostile aircraft."
In a message on his social networks, he has shared photographs in which the plane can be seen in mid-flight and, later, other images that show the remains of the aircraft on fire in a forested area in the state of Zulia, in the west of the country.
1/4🔁 Our country is not a traveler!
Venezuela has someone to defend it!
#FANB immobilizes and renders unusable on the ground an invading plane from Cozumel - Mexico in the Catatumbo municipality of Zulia state.
It is a twin-engine Gulfstream aircraft, white, registration V3-GRS, pic.twitter.com/QAeRtRAJxn
— CEOFANB (@CEOFANBVE) January 25, 2024
During the last year, the Bolivarian Armed Forces have deployed their defense artillery to destroy aircraft allegedly linked to drug trafficking and illegal mining.
In 2023, at least 38 destroyed aircraft were recorded.
Last November, Venezuelan military forces also immobilized another “hostile” aircraft in Apure State.