30 Arrested in Venezuela Over Sabotage Plot; Venezuela Suspends Flights to Colombia Over Conspiracy Allegations
Venezuela’s aviation authority announced that flights will resume the day after Sunday’s parliamentary elections. The suspension follows the arrest of more than 30 individuals accused of conspiring to destabilize the country ahead of the vote, prompting Venezuela to temporarily halt flights arriving from neighboring Colombia.
On Monday, May 19, Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello said on state television that the flight suspension was “immediate” and would last for one week. The announcement of the arrests comes at a time when an independent investigative panel has released a report documenting serious human rights violations in Venezuela following the presidential election held on July 28, 2024.
Minister Cabello claimed that the alleged conspirators planned to carry out explosions at various Venezuelan embassies, hospitals, and police stations. Among the arrested are 21 Venezuelan citizens and 17 foreigners, including individuals with Colombian, Mexican, and Ukrainian passports. He stated that although they entered Venezuela via Colombia—both by air and land—they actually originated from unnamed third countries.
Without presenting any evidence, Cabello alleged that the group included explosives experts, human traffickers, and mercenaries working with members of Venezuela’s political opposition.
He further added,
“They are trying to create a scenario that suggests the country is not in a suitable condition to hold elections.”
Colombia’s foreign ministry issued a statement saying the Venezuelan government had not provided any information about the Colombian nationals who were detained.
Colombia’s civil aviation authority confirmed that commercial flights between the two countries have been temporarily suspended. Venezuela’s aviation authority stated that the suspension will remain in effect until 6:00 p.m. on Monday, May 26.
‘Political Repression’
Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro—who was re-elected in July 2024 for a third term in a vote widely dismissed by the international community as fraudulent—has frequently claimed that his government is the target of U.S. and Colombian-backed coup plots.
In an interview, opposition leader María Corina Machado, who has been in hiding since the election, called for a boycott of Sunday’s parliamentary election to ensure “empty polling stations.”
Opposition figures have alleged that their candidate in the July election, former diplomat Edmundo González Urrutia—who later went into exile in Spain due to repression—was the true winner.
An independent panel of experts supported by the Organization of American States (OAS) reported on Monday that the post-election period has been
“one of the most brutal and organized episodes of political repression in Venezuela’s modern history.”
The panel added that the repression has now extended beyond political opponents and human rights defenders to include election workers, election observers, relatives of opposition politicians, minors, and even ordinary citizens.
