MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Venezuela ups military strength on Caribbean coast to fight drug trafficking

Maduro has taken steps against what he called the TANCOL threat

Venezuela's military strength in the northernmost Paraguaná peninsula on the Caribbean seashore has been upped Thursday as President Nicolás Maduro urged authorities from the Dutch territories of Aruba, Bonaire, and Curacao to join efforts against drug trafficking in the area.

“I gave the secret orders for the establishment of military bases in the area, new military bases. New in concept, not a traditional military base. New in the concept, in its integration with the

population, in the territorial occupation, in the surveillance capacity, in the capacity of armed reaction,” said Maduro during a broadcast ceremony.

He added that this area in the State of Falcon is “one of the Colombian drug trafficking routes to Europe.” Hence, the Bolivarian National Armed Force (FANB) is deployed in the Paraguaná peninsula as part of the operation against “TANCOL,” a Venezuelan-concocted acronym for the “Armed Colombian Drug Trafficking terrorists.”

“I call on the ambassador of the Netherlands, the government of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, the local governments of Aruba, Curacao, and Bonaire, to get their act together, that we coordinate because Venezuela is making a great effort to protect all this and we will support it,” Maduro underlined as he highlighted the natural beauty of the region, due to which he ordered the Ministries of Defense and Tourism to create “a great tourist economic zone” to be run jointly.

A FANB squadron reported on Sept. 5 the seizure in Paraguaná of the largest marijuana shipment ever, together with 7.7 kilos of cocaine bound for Martinique.

Diplomatic ties between Colombia and Venezuela were re-established earlier this week.