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Venezuelan Minister of Defence Vladimir Padrino Lopez announced earlier today that the Venezuelan military would be moving closer to Trinidad and Tobago, to combat what he claimed are criminal acts occurring within territory close to the Gulf of Paria (the stretch of water that separates the two).

Speaking about the Venezuelan military movement during a televised address to citizens on Sunday, Padrino, who previously warned the country of a potential Venezuelan ‘response’, named Trinidad and Tobago as a country from which ‘a lot of smuggling’ and human trafficking occurs.

He said that under the instructions of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, the military would be moving to the Sucre State- which includes the Paria peninsula. The closest point between the Sucre State and Trinidad’s northern coast is approximately eight miles.