Spanish – The president of Colombia, Iván Duque, denounced that the regime of Nicolás Maduro is managing the purchase of missiles from Iran.
“There is information from international intelligence agencies” that “Nicolás Maduro is interested in acquiring “medium and long-range missiles, through Iran,” Duque said in a conversation about Colombia’s future.
#20Ago | @IvanDuque, presidente de Colombia 🇨🇴, denunció que el régimen de Nicolás Maduro pretende comprar misiles a través de Irán.
🗣️ "Todo esto muestra una estructura criminal".
— El Diario (@eldiario) August 20, 2020
Duque pointed out that the missiles have not yet reached Venezuela but clarified that “those approximations” are being made. According to the Colombian president, Maduro’s defense minister, Vladimir Padrino López, is behind the negotiations.
Some members of the Venezuelan guard are triangulating arms from other countries, particularly Russia and Belarus, for Colombian irregular groups operating on the border.
Moreover, Colombian authorities had revealed that in a recent operation in Arauca, “dissidents” of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) were armed with weapons of war from the Venezuelan army.
The purchase of missiles by Maduro’s regime with the presumption of being able to attack Colombia is not surprising. Last year, in October, Diosdado Cabello claimed that Russian missiles were targeting Bogotá from Venezuela. Cabello, the second most powerful man in Chavismo, and the dictatorship’s defense minister announced what strategic points they would be targeting.
This is not the first time that the Maduro regime is known to have plans to destabilize the Duque government in Colombia. In September 2019, it was revealed that the tyrannical regime has the backing of Colombian guerrilla groups to attack the neighboring country.
A report in Semana magazine revealed that an alliance exists between the Colombian guerrilla and the Venezuelan Armed Forces. It seems that the guerrillas can make use of the country’s intelligence services to develop plans for attacks against Colombia, “analyzing strategic points of Colombian infrastructure, as well as government and military installations, ports, airports, bridges, and roads.”
A criminal accusation in the United States revealed that in 2006 when Maduro was already foreign minister, he received some five million dollars from the FARC and had agreed with the guerrilla group to train Chavista militiamen in exchange for the provision of arms and uniforms for the Venezuelan Armed Forces.
According to U.S. investigations, Maduro also negotiated “multiple tons of shipments of FARC-produced cocaine” in exchange for providing the guerrillas with military-grade weapons and allegedly used his position as former President Hugo Chávez’s foreign minister to open the doors to drug trafficking and ensure that the shipments reached their destination.
According to U.S. authorities, Maduro coordinated foreign affairs with Honduras and other countries to facilitate stopovers for drug trafficking. In short, he used his position as foreign minister to allow the shipment of drugs.
“Around 2008, Maduro, Cabello, and Carvajal attended a meeting with a representative of the FARC, where the attendees agreed that the Cartel de los Soles would provide the FARC with cash and weapons in exchange for increasing cocaine production. During the meeting, Maduro agreed to abuse his authority as foreign minister to ensure that the Venezuela-Colombia border remains open to facilitate drug trafficking,” the U.S. investigation said.