In the face of the serious threat represented by the confirmed presence of more than a hundred Colombian paramilitaries in the vicinity of the city of Caracas, and faced with the disclosure of imminent plans to generate a climate of violence with perverse political intentions; the National Government wishes to emphasize the importance of these facts, so that the international community is rightfully informed of an issue of extreme importance due to the severity of the facts and the implications that it brings about on the security and defense of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, for its institutions, for the democratic system, for peace, for the preservation of Human rights and for the regional political stability.

The detention of the narco-terrorists fits in the context of what the National Government has been denouncing for some time now, about the perverse plans promoted by some sectors, inside and outside the country, in order to destabilize the National Government and to create the conditions for foreign intervention.

The permanent and continuous investigations held in regards to the ill-fated events of year 2002 allow to confirm, without doubt, that we are facing a plan designed by sectors of the opposition, both outside and inside Venezuela, supported by some members of the FAN (The National Armed Forces), the same that reneged in recent years from the Constitutional path and are being judged for breaking the oath of fidelity to the Republic and to the Commander-in-Chief of the FAN. This group is one of the many, supported by the State Department of the United States, that, in plain language and with the purest cynicism, admits to be financing groups that carry out violent actions and has every intention to continue acting in the same sense.

The citizens involved and investigated, and upon whom the weight of the Law will fall, are the same ones who have been identified as being responsible for the violent actions triggered from the Coup d'Etat of 2002; for the employers lockout against our main economic support; later, for all the warfare movements in the months of February and March that derived in acts of extreme violence, serious environmental damages and destruction of public goods in residential middle-class zones, including people assassinated by such demonstrators. It is necessary to emphasize names of opponents who do not hide their other political agenda, among them, Mr. Carlos Andrés Perez, who knows what would happened, has previously affirmed from the United States that the option for us, Venezuelans, in order to assure the departure of President Hugo Chávez Frias, is violence with massive deaths and a military Government.

At the same time, the private media have maintained their attitude of auto-censorship applied on April 12^th and 13^th, 2002 denying society the right to opportune information. It is this same media and its owners, who constantly file suit against the government, in front of international organizations, for presumed violations of the right to inform. In spite of the repeated lies and of such undemocratic conduct, the Government of President Chávez has not intervened any of the media establishments.

This perverse combination of media and undemocratic groups represent a high danger for peace; they act motivated, particularly, by economic hunger, and they resort to violence going as far as invading its own country with subversive and terrorist troops. Such act has no room in the Venezuelan society, especially in the conscious majorities that believe in the necessity of structural changes.

The Colombian paramilitaries, captured by the security forces, were being trained to disrupt civilian and military facilities with the objective of generating violence, creating chaos and confusion in Venezuela with the ultimate aim of breaking the constitutional order and, more seriously still, of attempting against the physical integrity of its authorities, thinking that such climate of tension would have consequently forced foreign intervention.

The presence of a significant number of Colombian paramilitaries in Venezuelan territory is a problem of State that has negative implications to the sovereignty, and the peace and tranquility of the country. It also represents a danger for social peace in the Continent. This fact must attract the attention of the democratic factors and must be rejected by the international community.

The presence of minors and the murder of irregular members of the group, by the same perpetrators of such facts indicate, without doubt, that such conspiracy is bound to the darkest interests of powerful economic and political sectors, and of the media, that from Colombia and from Miami, try to attain power with the sole intention of continuing the depletion of our natural resources, those that we are defending with dignity, under the rules of sovereignty and national dignity.

The Government of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela has faced the violence with unquestionable efficiency and with a strong sense of State in order to guarantee the constitutional order. The National Armed Forces and the bodies of security of the State have acted with professionalism, with total respect of the individual guarantees, and abiding by the State of Right.

Even though the investigations have not concluded, the declarations of the prisoners, the successfully obtained proofs, and the detention of people linked to the political life, and the economic and national communication sector, indicate that this plan forms part of an operation of greater scale and depth.

The National Government will exhaust all judiciary, legal and political instances, related to this case, and the findings will reveal to the country and to the world this new attack against the democratic institutions and against our society. In this sense, we will denounce categorically, in all the international forums and organisms, this attempt to import paramilitary terrorism to our country, as we have already done so before the Permanent Council of the Organization of American States.

AREVALO MÉNDEZ ROMERO