Miguel Rodriguez Torres, Venezuela 's Minister of the Interior denied allegations on Thursday that members of CubaÂ’s elite military Special Forces known as the Avispas Negras were sent to Venezuela.
| Which confirms their presence... |
In response to a reporterÂ’s question inquiring what he knew about the Avispas Negras, Torres replied that the only Cubans he knew about were on the sports field and in medical dispensaries.
| Cuban sportsmen. Heavily-armed Cuban sportsmen... |
Torres was in San Cristóbal, the capital of Tachira, a state bordering Colombia, birthplace to the protests that have shaken Venezuela and where Nicolas Maduro’s government decided to send a battalion of paratroopers on Thursday. "We have to join our efforts to reverse the disorder in San Cristóbal," said Torres during a press conference.
The Avispas Negras are not police. They are military personnel. The nickname refers to the special troops of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Cuba. They are so called because their badge sports a black wasp ready to sting and attack, donned on the sleeves of camouflage uniforms.
The Special Forces are similar to the Army Rangers or Navy Seals.
The Avispas Negras have participated in the Angolan civil war and fought against South AfricaÂ’s army.
Photos posted on social networks showing a military transport plane disembarking a contingent of uniformed soldiers spurred concern about the alleged arrival of these troops to Venezuela. The following was posted on Twitter, with the caption reading, “Cuban agents arriving in Venezuela with instructions to strike and suppress, Cuban style.”
Further fuel was provided by an interview posted on the Cuban affairs blog, Universo Increible, managed by journalists Oscar Suarez and Uberto Mario. Citing "comrades who are still in Venezuela," Mario says that at least two contingents of the Special Forces have arrived in the Andean nation since last Saturday.
In a statement released Tuesday by the newspaper El Nacional in Caracas, the Venezuelan student movement said, "our country cannot continue under the direction of CastroÂ’s communism. We demand the immediate expulsion of all Cuban agents from our institutions." |
