Venezuelan warplane crashes near border with Colombia, as fears of war mount

September 18th, 2015 (ICR News and EFE) A Venezuelan air force fighter jet crashed in the northwestern part of the country near the Colombian border, Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino said Friday.

The plane, a Russian-made Su-30, went down at around 9:07 p.m. Thursday and there has been no word on the condition of the two men aboard, Padrino said in a communique.

He said in the note that the jet was piloted by Capts. Ronald Ramirez and Jackson Garcia, who the night before were “guarding” Venezuelan air space and were flying along the Colombian border after detecting “an aircraft that entered the northwestern region of the country illegally.”

The place where the warplane went down is in the area of Venezuelan territory used by narco-traffickers “as a platform for distributing drugs produced in the neighboring country to Central America and the Caribbean,” the statement said.

“The Air Accidents Investigation Board was immediately ordered to determine the possible causes of the crash and to take the necessary measures to find the pilots,” Padrino said.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro wrote in the early hours Friday on his Twitter account: “All the Support and Solidarity of the Homeland for the Bolivarian Military Air Corps, let us raise our Morale high and continue the Battle.”

The crash occurred as part of a series of measures that the Maduro administration has taken on a long stretch of the border with Colombia, where he ordered border crossings closed and a state of exception.

These measures started to take effect on Aug. 19 in six municipalities of the western state of Tachira after suspected Colombian paramilitaries fired shots that left three Venezuelan soldiers and a civilian wounded.

On Aug. 28 Maduro extended the measure to four more municipalities in Tachira, a decision the president defended as part of the fight against organized crime and contraband on the border, which he blames partly on Colombia.

As of this Friday there are now 23 municipalities where border crossings are closed and the state of exception imposed, which amounts to two-thirds of Venezuela’s 2,219-kilometer (1,379-mile) border with Colombia.

Maduro and his Colombian counterpart, Juan Manuel Santos, will meet in Quito next Monday to try to work out a solution for the problems on the border.

Fears of War

Nearly half of Colombians fear the current dispute could lead to war, according to Reuters and a survey released on Tuesday.

Forty-three percent of people in a Cifras y Conceptos poll published by Caracol Radio and Red + Noticias said they fear the crisis could lead to military conflict between the two countries.

Socialist Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has blamed many of recession-hit Venezuela’s problems on Colombians.

Maduro’s political opponents say he is using Colombians as scapegoats to distract from Venezuela’s economic crisis.

Since the outset of the border crisis, at least 1,482 Colombians have been expelled from Venezuela – many forced from their homes with only the belongings they could carry on their back – and some 20,000 more have left the neighboring country for fear of being deported, according to a report by the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

EFE contributed to this report.  Some information comes from Reuters