Click to view full size

Se­nior Mul­ti­me­dia Re­porter

Venezuela’s De­fence Min­is­ter Vladimir Padri­no López is dis­miss­ing as “fake news” re­ports cir­cu­lat­ing on so­cial me­dia and in re­gion­al out­lets that two se­nior Bo­li­var­i­an Na­tion­al Armed Forces (FANB) gen­er­als had de­sert­ed.

Ap­pear­ing in a video re­leased on his of­fi­cial ac­counts on Sat­ur­day, Padri­no López stood along­side Air Force Gen­er­al Pe­dro Rafael Suárez Ca­ballero and Brigadier Gen­er­al Bit­ner Vil­le­gas to demon­strate that both of­fi­cers re­main in ac­tive ser­vice. “In Venezuela, there is no de­ser­tion, and pa­tri­ot­ic morale is abun­dant as we pre­pare to de­fend the coun­try against any ex­ter­nal threat,” Padri­no López de­clared. He said the claims were part of a “psy­cho­log­i­cal war” waged by far-right groups seek­ing to desta­bilise Venezuela’s in­sti­tu­tions and armed forces.