Venezuela’s Minister of Popular Power for Communication and Information, Jorge Rodriguez, has claimed that the opposition was planning to kill people crossing the Simon Bolivar Bridge in the western state of Tachira after receiving humanitarian aid across the border between Venezuela and Colombia.
“The first false-positive [fabricated] operation planned the theft of a tank by two terrorists. It was planned to use that stolen military vehicle to cross the Simon Bolivar Bridge, hitting all pedestrians along the way and trampling them to death, and then blaming the National Guard and the government of Nicolas Maduro”, the minister said at a press conference in Caracas.
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“Fortunately, President Nicolas Maduro decided to close the bridges. Perhaps people are still alive because President Maduro closed the Simon Bolivar Bridge”, he noted.
The Venezuelan minister also said that the trucks had been burned by the same opposition supporters and that the legitimate government was also confident that those trucks did not contain any humanitarian aid.
“There are signs that there was nothing in these trucks and that the main purpose was to burn them”, he said.
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Rodriguez also confirmed that the humanitarian aid is part of a plan to seize Venezuela. “Everything is clear with the policies of Juan Guaido [the self-proclaimed president], all this humanitarian aid is just an act of aggression against Venezuela”, he said.
On 23 February, during the delivery of humanitarian aid, violent situations were recorded on the Francisco de Paula Santander and Simon Bolivar bridges on the border with Colombia. As a result, some trucks from Colombia were burned, and hundreds of people were injured in clashes in the border area.
