Venezuela denounces the death of eight civilians in armed conflict on the border with Colombia

Eight civilians have died in Venezuela in recent days due to "acts" of armed irregulars on the border with Colombia that include the use of mines, reported this Friday the Venezuelan Minister of Defense, General Vladimir Padrino López. The official presented at a press conference a balance of operations launched this year by the Armed Forces with an epicenter in the border state of Apure (west), which, according to what he said, left nine "terrorists" dead and 56 detained.

There is not "a single casualty" among the Venezuelan military, he added, describing this deployment as a "success." "Unfortunately, last week we received the news of eight deaths from the town, from the civilian population, entering their homes, travelling on motorcycles, victims of these criminal acts," said Padrino, who released a video denouncing the use of mines.

They are "improvised explosive devices that carry shrapnel, that carry gunpowder, that do a lot of damage," he explained, without specifying whether all the deceased civilians were injured by the mine explosion. The Armed Forces act against what the Venezuelan government calls TANCOL (Armed Drug Trafficking Terrorists of Colombia), a term that socialist President Nicolás Maduro has used since the end of last year to refer to irregular groups along the 2,219 km of the Venezuelan-Colombian border. 

Bogotá, the Venezuelan opposition and human rights organisations denounce the presence of dissidents from the dissolved FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) and members of the ELN (National Liberation Army), with the complicity of Venezuelan authorities, accusations that Caracas denies.