Venezuela has suspended flights from neighbouring Colombia as it allegedly planned its activities before Sunday's parliamentary elections to undermine the country, and Venezuela has suspended flights from neighboring Colombia.
Venezuelan Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello announced on state television on Monday that the flight ban was “immediate” and would last for a week.
The arrests were a report on serious human rights abuses committed in Venezuela following the presidential election on July 28, 2024, and recorded a report that recorded serious human rights violations.
Caberlo said the anti-government plan involves placing explosives in Venezuela's embassy, hospitals and police stations. He said authorities detained 21 Venezuelans and 17 foreigners, some of whom have Colombian, Mexican and Ukrainian citizenship. Caberlo said the detainees arrived from Colombia, some by plane and some on land, but initially departed from other unnamed countries.
Cabello has provided no evidence that the group includes explosive devices, human smugglers and experts from mercenaries and is working with members of the political opposition in Venezuela.
“The situation they want to raise is that Venezuela has no conditions to hold the election,” Caberlo said.
The Colombian Foreign Ministry said in a statement that the Venezuelan government has not received any information on the detention of Colombian citizens.
Colombia's Civil Aviation Authority confirmed that commercial flights between countries have been suspended, while Venezuelan aviation authorities said the measure will continue until Monday, May 26, at 6 p.m. local time.
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro is re-elected in July 2024 [File: Juan Barreto/AFP]
“Political Suppression”
The presidential administration of Nicolas Maduro, whose third term was re-election in July 2024, was rejected by most of the international community because of its fraudulent nature and often claimed to be the target of a coup we and Colombia-backed.
Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, in a interview with AFP News last week, hid in a hiding after last year's presidential election, pledging voter boycotts on Sunday that would make “all people” [voting] The center is empty”.
The opposition said statistics from the July voting results showed a clear victory for its candidate, former diplomat Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, who entered Spain to exile after suppressing dissent.
The independent expert group supported by the U.S. state organization wrote in its report on Monday that the post-election period in Venezuela has seen “the most severe and complex phase of political repression in modern history of Venezuela.” This includes the enforcement of unarmed protesters, forced disappearances and the increase in arbitrary detention. They also noted that the state has expanded its target of repression beyond political opponents and human rights defenders, including pollsters, election witnesses, opposition members, minors and relatives of others.
The diplomatic outcry after last year's election broke Venezuela's ties and flight routes with several countries. Some airlines have also canceled their operations to and from the country due to outstanding debts.
Venezuela and Colombia reopened their flight routes in November 2022, and after Colombia's first left-wing president, Gustavo Petro, was elected, he restored bilateral ties in 2019, when the bilateral ties refused to acknowledge Maduro during his second term, then-leader Ivan Duque.
