Maduro: “Colombia is attempting a military aggression against Venezuela”
The president of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, said Monday that the Colombian government is advancing a campaign against the OPEC nation in a warlike escalation with which it seeks to hide its own problems.
Military vehicles on the road near the border area of Venezuela with Colombia. / Via REUTERS
Reuters | Vivian Sequera y Deisy Buitrago
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Leer en español: Maduro: “Colombia está intentando una agresión militar contra Venezuela”
The government says that Bogotá's accusations, accusing Maduro of supporting the rebel National Liberation Army and remnants of the demobilized Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), are an excuse to attempt military aggression against the OPEC nation because the administration of Iván Duque "hates" Venezuela.
Colombia denies that it seeks military action against Venezuela, while Duque has said that Maduro should spend his country's money on food and not on missiles and qualifies as a "bravado" the announcement of the socialist leader to install an anti-aircraft defense system in the binational border.
Duque, whose government has had to deal with the massive migration of Venezuelans fleeing the economic crisis, "wants to cover the Colombian crisis with Venezuela, wants to cover the Colombian crisis with war, is the truth, they want to cover the Colombian crisis," said Maduro when qualifying the neighboring country as "a failed state."
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In Bogotá "there is a government that hates Venezuela as it never existed before and that responds to lines that arrive from war sectors that aspire to an armed conflict between both countries," Maduro added in an address from the government palace and accompanied by its cabinet, military commanders and other high judicial and electoral authorities.
From the Colombian government "they are embarking on an adventure, an escalation that leads to a war between two sister countries," Maduro said in his message on state television.
Last week Maduro announced that he will deploy a 2,219-kilometer missile system on the Colombian border, while military exercises will be carried out from Tuesday to September 28 in Venezuelan states bordering the Andean nation.