Venezuelan Military bases attacked in Bolivar state
2 Venezuelan Military Bases were attacked in the early hours of the morning of the 22nd December, a mixture of former Venezuelan Army soldiers and local indigenous Pemones staged an operation to steal large amounts of weaponry.
A lot of information about the actual events of the raids is still unclear but here’s what we know so far.
In the early hours of the morning on Sunday, 2 small groups of ex soldiers and indigenous Pemones raided 2 bases in Gran Sabana, Bolivar state. The 513 Jungle Infantry Battalion (Luepa) and the 5102 Motorized Cavalry Squadron (Escamoto). Only the attack on Luepa was successful.
A significant amount of weaponry was stolen in the raid, 122 AK-103 rifles, 120 grenades, 3 RPGs, 3 FN MAG machine guns, 10 Carl Gustav M2 and 10 boxes of ammunition for the AK-103. All of this was stolen only from the Luepa base. After the raid had failed on Escamoto the group headed back to meet up with the other group, on the way they raided a police post in San Francisco de Yuriani and stole 9 Glock hanguns and 5 shotguns.
Almost immediately, a search started for the attackers, which led to a confrontation between some of the searching soldiers and the insurgent group, 1 Venezuelan army soldier was killed in the clash and 1 insurgent was injured (Darwin Malaguera Ruiz). In this clash the army managed to recover 1 of the vehicles used to loot the base. they recovered almost half the weapons originally stolen. It has also been reported that the commander of the Luepa base and 2 soldiers had been kidnapped by the insurgents but no other information on that is currently available.
Around 12 hours after the raid the Venezuelan Defence Minister released a statement where he admitted the attack had taken place and that they were still searching for most of the attackers
Now some information about the former Venezuelan soldier that was captured by the Venezuelan Army during the raid.
Darwin Malaguera Ruiz is a former Venezuelan National Guard soldier (GNB). He was one of the many soldiers that fled across the border on February 23rd earlier this year. Malaguera fled to Cucuta along with the majority of soldiers that deserted that day.
Balaguera in Cucuta on the 23rd February after crossing to Colombia
Malaguera was in fact one of the first soldiers to desert, he can be seen here in the background of this video wearing a black T-Shirt as other Venezuelan Soldiers that fled greet each other.
Balaguera can be seen in the black T-Shirt facing away from the camera
Those military members that fled to Colombia in February have for a while been threatening to start staging military operations in Venezuela, the surprise was that both the Madruo government and many others thought that any attacks would occur in the Colombian-Venezuelan border region. An attack in Bolivar state was not expected, despite a number of former Venezuelan army soldiers currently living in Brazil after fleeing there on February 23.
After looking through Social Media accounts the last photo of balaguera is sometime around July, his movements between then and Sunday is unknown, He was last active on Social Media on Friday.
Balaguera looks to have favoured a military option to resolving the situation in Venezuela, in comparison to Guaidos political solution. Balaguera did however encourage his followers in Venezuela to attend protests organised by Guaido.
Balaguera at the time of writing is in a hospital in Bolivar city after having been flown under armed guard in a helicopter to the hospital there. Balaguera was shot during the confrontation. The rest of the group of attackers are still on the run and the Venezuelan Army has been unable to track them down.