Defence Ministry – No proof of paramilitary entry via T&T

The Min­istry of De­fence says it is aware of re­cent re­ports con­cern­ing a claim made by the Pres­i­dent of Venezuela, Nico­las Maduro, al­leg­ing the in­fil­tra­tion by Colom­bian para­mil­i­tary groups in­to east­ern Venezuela through Trinidad and To­ba­go.

In re­sponse to these claims, the Min­istry of De­fence says it has ini­ti­at­ed a com­pre­hen­sive in­ves­ti­ga­tion. “Pre­lim­i­nary find­ings in­di­cate that there is cur­rent­ly no ev­i­dence to sup­port these al­le­ga­tions. How­ev­er, the Min­istry is tak­ing im­me­di­ate and de­ci­sive steps to ad­dress the mat­ter with the ut­most se­ri­ous­ness and ur­gency,” a state­ment from the Min­istry of De­fence said on Wednes­day af­ter­noon.

The Min­istry says it is work­ing in close co­or­di­na­tion with law en­force­ment agen­cies and se­cu­ri­ty forces to en­hance sur­veil­lance and re­in­force bor­der se­cu­ri­ty in crit­i­cal ar­eas. Ad­di­tion­al­ly, it will be en­gag­ing with its Venezue­lan coun­ter­parts through the ap­pro­pri­ate diplo­mat­ic chan­nels to gath­er any rel­e­vant in­for­ma­tion or ev­i­dence that could as­sist in this mat­ter.