Venezuela: Soldier killed in military base attack

ANKARA

Venezuela's defense minister confirmed that one soldier was killed in an attack on a military base in the southeastern Gran Sabana region.

"In the early morning hours today, a military unit in the south of the country was assaulted by extremist sectors of the opposition, and a batch of weapons was taken from the unit," Vladimir Padrino Lopez announced Sunday on Twitter.

''From this terrorist attack, an army troop was killed.''

Padrino added that police and military agents were deployed in the area and managed to capture some of the attackers, as well as the stolen weapons.

He said the detainees are providing information.

Meanwhile, the foreign minister of the Latin American country held Lima Group -- a bloc of 12 Latin American nations working to find a solution to the Venezuela crisis -- responsible for the attack, accusing them of a "coup".

"From Peru, they [attackers] enter through Colombia and receive support also in Brazil. It is a coup strategy of the triangulation of governments of the Lima Cartel to produce violence, death and political destabilization in Venezuela," Jorge Arreaza tweeted.

"We denounce these governments before the world," he said.

"These criminals were trained in fully identified paramilitary camps in Colombia, and received the artful collaboration of the government of Jair Bolsonaro," Jorge Rodriguez, communication and information minister, said on Twitter.

He added that the authorities are working hard to capture all those involved.

Since the beginning of the year, Venezuela has been embroiled in political unrest as President Nicolas Maduro and opposition leader Juan Guaido engage in a power battle, while the country's economy has been in precipitous decline following a global downturn in the price of crude oil.

Lima Group recognizes Guaido as the country's legitimate ruler instead of the elected Maduro government.