A senior Venezuelan official has confirmed that two Russian planes have landed in the country after authorization by President Nicolas Maduro.
Cabello made the remarks in a speech broadcast on state television on Monday, without providing further details.
His emphasis on the legitimate government in Venezuela was because an opposition figure, Juan Guaido, has declared himself “interim president” of the country and has been attempting to shore up international support for a “government” of his own.
Sputnik had earlier quoted a diplomatic source in Caracas as telling the Russian new agency that a group of Russian military personnel had arrived in Venezuela for “bilateral consultations” related to “contracts… on military and technical cooperation.”
An independent Venezuela journalist, Javier Mayorca, also wrote in a Twitter message that a Russian Air Force Antonov-124 cargo plane and a smaller jet, apparently an Ilyushin Il-62, had landed in the country on Saturday.