Argentine and Venezuelan defense ministers discussed the operation to invade Venezuela

The Defense Ministers of Argentina, Jorge Taiana, and Venezuela, Vladimir Padrino, held a telephone conversation on Thursday 02/17/2022 about the Puma Operation, which allegedly contemplated an invasion of Venezuela during the administration of the right-wing Mauricio Macri.

The press office of the Venezuelan Ministry of Defense reported that Padrino thanked his Argentine counterpart for starting an internal investigation into that exercise.

“It was a cordial conversation, both were in contact. We continue to work normally, the investigation is ongoing,” said sources who had access to the dialogue.

In statements to the Télam news agency, Minister Taiana said he was not surprised by this operation, since he assured that the Macri government (2015-2019), as an active member of the Lima Group, had “an interventionist attitude in Venezuela.”

“As a result of this information, I have requested an exhaustive and detailed report of all actions related to said exercise called ‘Puma’, verifying if the current regulations were complied with, the Law on Intelligence, Defense, Internal Security, as well as the nature and objectives of said exercise”, detailed Taiana.

In parallel, the president of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, also asked to start an investigation into the case.

According to military intelligence documents, released by the Rocket to the Moon media outlet, the Argentine military forces – at the instruction of Macri – carried out maneuvers between April and June 2019 in the face of a possible military intervention by the United States in Venezuela.