Caracas-Sana
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said today that his country's military exercises on the border with Colombia do not threaten anyone and are only defensive.
"These military exercises are not threatening, but self-defense," Maduro said in a televised speech.
"The commander of strategic operations in the armed forces and all army units on the border has ordered a declaration of alert ... in the face of Colombia's threat of aggression against Venezuela," he said. Armed forces are ready and well equipped to defend their homeland. ”
The Venezuelan army chief of staff said it had begun deploying 150,000 troops on the border with Colombia to conduct maneuvers ordered by President Maduro.
"The Bolivarian Armed Forces are peace forces," Admiral Remigio Ceballos, commander of strategic operations in Venezuela, told reporters. "We respect all countries but we are not afraid of anyone."
Tanks and armored vehicles armed with rockets and units of dozens of members of the Bolivarian National Armed Forces were seen arriving at Lavria airport in the western state of Tachira.
Last week, the Venezuelan president ordered the army to declare a state of alert in states bordering Colombia to counter Colombian government threats of military aggression against Venezuela, and Maduro ordered a military exercise under the slogan of peace and sovereignty in the states of Zulia, Tachira, Apure and Amazonas, which borders Venezuela and Colombia.
Caracas broke off diplomatic ties with Bogota in February after Colombia recognized right-wing opposition leader Juan Guaido as interim president.
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