São Paulo, Brazil — Venezuela’s armed forces said they had intercepted a “hostile” aircraft flying without identification over its national territory, the government announced Friday. The interception reportedly happened on Tuesday.
The country’s air-defense system detected a small airplane flying without visible registration and forced it to land, according to a Telegram message posted by top General Domingo Hernández, responsible for the National Bolivarian Armed Forces (FANB), and re-shared by Foreign Minister Yván Gil Pinto. The announcement did not specify who was on board or the aircraft’s origin.
Latin America Reports questioned Venezuela’s Ministry of Defense about the origin of the aircraft and to confirm the date of the incident, but had not received a response by the time of publication. The U.S. military was also contacted but haven’t responded so far.
The general’s statement said the military detected the small aircraft thanks to “early warning radar systems belonging to the nation’s Integrated Aerospace Power.” It tracked the plane entering the country from the east of Bolivar state without emitting a transponder code.
“Legal control and information verifications were carried out through the Maiquetía FIR (Fixed Reference Infrastructure), where it was confirmed that said aircraft did not present a flight plan. Therefore, its illegality was declared, and its immediate interdiction was ordered,” read the statement.
The aircraft was then ordered to make a forced landing around the municipality of Pedro Camejo in the western state of Apure, which borders Colombia.
“Venezuela is a land of peace, freedom, and democracy, of law and justice, where we fight daily and head-on against drug trafficking. We do not produce, process, or consume drugs, and we will certainly not be a platform for transnational narcoterrorism,” wrote general Domingo Hernández, adding that 419 aircraft have been demobilized in the country’s airspace since 2013.
The news comes less than a week after U.S. President Donald Trump said that airspace over Venezuela should be closed, and major international carriers began canceling flights, amid Washington’s mounting military pressure on the Nicolas Maduro regime.
Read more via Al Jazeera: Last foreign carriers halt flights to Venezuela after Trump’s airspace ban
Yesterday, the U.S. Southern Command announced another lethal boat strike in the Caribbean killing four allegedly “male narco-terrorists” carrying drugs.
Featured image credit:
Image: President Maduro and the Venezuelan Armed Forces (FANB)
Source: Presidential Press Office
