Spanish
Venezuelan military personnel destroyed, during an operation in Apure state (west, bordering Colombia), an aircraft without the corresponding permits to be within the country or a flight plan, reported this Monday the strategic operational commander of the Bolivarian National Armed Forces (FANB), Domingo Hernández Lárez.
Following a surveillance operation, the twin-engine aircraft was located on the ground, hidden and "masked" next to an embankment used as an "improvised clandestine runway," he explained on Instagram.
The plane, he continued, "did not present visible serial numbers and according to the information control record of the region, it did not have a national flight plan or permit, which is why it was declared hostile, and was destroyed in situ."
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According to the FANB, 31 aircraft have already been immobilized so far in 2025, and 422 since the enactment of the airspace defense law in 2012. On December 5th, the FANB intercepted and immobilized an aircraft in Apure declared hostile by the authorities, according to Hernández Lárez. The military chief then explained that the plane entered the country from the east without emitting an identification code or presenting a flight plan and with the transponder off, which is why "its illegality was declared and its interdiction was immediately ordered with three F-16 fighter systems" of the air force.These operations have been carried out at a time when the United States maintains an air and naval deployment in the Caribbean, near Venezuelan waters, which, it claims, aims to combat drug trafficking in the region, but which Caracas interprets as a "threat" and an attempt to bring about a change of regime.
Tensions escalated after the announcement by U.S. President Donald Trump of a blockade of sanctioned oil tankers moving to and from the South American country, and the confiscation of two ships carrying Venezuelan crude in recent days.
