Venezuelan president denounces plan from Colombia against military and police centers

Caracas, May 17 (RHC)-- The president of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, denounced on Monday that his Colombian counterpart Iván Duque is financing criminal groups to attack military and police centers in his country.

"Iván Duque from Colombia has hatched a plan and has invested several million dollars to hire criminals to attack military centers, police centers, to try to socially destabilize Venezuela," denounced President Maduro.

At the same time, the Venezuelan head of state asserted that Duque's intentions are similar to those applied by the drug cartels.  "(Duque would do) Like drug trafficker Pablo Escobar Gaviria used to do against the police, to try to destabilize the people of Venezuela.  So be alert," he warned.

President Maduro also urged the National Assembly to investigate the statements made by former U.S. Secretary of Defense Mark Esper, who revealed in his new book that former President Donald Trump proposed to have him assassinated when speaking with Juan Guaidó.

"I hope that the National Assembly opens an investigation into these serious revelations of Donald Trump's former Secretary of Defense where they talked about an invasion of Venezuela; they talked about using mercenaries from Colombia to invade Venezuela; they talked about assassinating Nicolás Maduro and others -- ministers, ministers and leaders of the country," President Maduro emphasized.

The Venezuelan president recalled that there are several extremist activists who have raised the flags of violence and illegal sanctions against the country, which obstruct the general welfare.

"In these four years since you re-elected me, what we have done is to work, with God's favor, with his blessings, with his divine protection.  Because if it had not been for God's blessing, I would not be here.  We would not be here and we have faced these four years head on."