Video Surfaces that Shows Venezuelan Opposition Activists Planning Violence

Venezuelan state television, VTV, released a video conference recording Monday night in which Venezuelan opposition activists are shown to be planning terrorist activities against the government of President Maduro.

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Opposition activists talk about carrying out an attack on a key bridge in Venezuela, near the border to Colombia.

Venezuelan state television, VTV, released a video conference recording Monday night in which Venezuelan opposition activists are shown to be planning terrorist activities against the government of President Maduro.

The two activists that can be observed in the video are Lorent Gomez Saleh and Gabriel Valles. Valles is president of the Venezuelan oppositional youth organization Operation Liberty.

Both Saleh and Valles are currently under arrest in Venezuela, following their expulsion from Colombia, last September 4, because of activities that “threaten national security, public order, public health, social tranquility, public safety,” in accordance with article 105 of Colombia’s migration law.

When Colombia expelled the two, Venezuelan state authorities immediately apprehended them at the Venezuelan border.

In the video, in which the two are apparently talking while in Colombia to someone who is in Venezuela, they say things such as, “On Monday we are going to take over the bridge, hard, hard…” in the state of Tachira. 

Tachira is a Venezuelan border state that has also been one of the main focal areas for the Venezuelan opposition. There, opposition activists terrorized neighborhoods for several months earlier this year with their street blockades and attacks on government sympathizers, as well as on government buildings and property. 

At another point in the video. Valles says, “We are going to do training … in Bogota,” and goes on to explain, “We have to have all of the vests and rifles ready, as well as the diplomatic cover…”

Apparently Saleh and Valles succeeded in gaining admission to Colombia’s Higher School of War, where they attended a course on “National Defense Orientation.”

Last week, Venezuela’s public prosecutor announced that the two would be charged with up to seven crimes, including “instigation and intimidation of public order, public uncertainty, and spreading false information.”