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Venezuelan Minister of Defence Vladimir Padrino Lopez announced yesterday 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 countries.

Speaking about the Venezuelan military movement during a televised address to citizens yesterday, 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.

MILITARY EXERCISES: Venezuelan Defence Minister Vladimir Padrino Lopez speaks during military exercises in Caracas on Saturday. —Photo: AP