April 29 2021 Venezuelan Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino Lopez said Tuesday that eight government soldiers have been killed as government forces fight rebels near the Colombian border.
Lopez 28 condolences to the families of fallen soldiers, stressed that these soldiers “to defend the country to die.”
Venezuela’s Defense Ministry confirmed on the 26th, government forces “in the past 72 hours in the border zone with an unusual Colombian armed group” fierce fighting. The conflict is concentrated in the area west of La Victoria in the western state of Apre.
In response to an attack on a government military outpost in La Victoria, government forces launched a military operation in the state of Apre on 21 March against this group of armed men operating on the border with Colombia. Government forces subsequently arrested several armed men and seized weapons, explosive devices and so on.
Venezuela did not say which armed group was involved in the rebellion, but called the militants “terrorists” and identified them as linked to drug gangs or Colombian President Ivan Duke.
Colombian security sources say the militants fighting Venezuelan government forces may belong to the disbanded Colombian rebels, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia.
The Colombian government had previously identified Venezuela as sheltering Colombian rebels, which the Venezuelan government denied.
