The Canadian Foreign Ministry has slammed the arrival of Russian military planes in Venezuela, claiming that it "threatens peace and security" in the country and allegedly hiders finding "peaceful solution to restore democracy".
The ministry's statement follows Brazilian top diplomat Ernesto Arauijo's statements calling for Russian military personnel to leave Venezuela and for Moscow to cease its support of Nicolas Maduro.
Earlier, Venezuela's military attaché in Moscow, Jose Rafael Torrealba Perez, stressed that the Russian specialists who arrived to the country on 23 March had come to hold talks about defence industry cooperation. The attaché specifically ruled out the Russian Armed Forces conducting any sort of military operations in Venezuela.
His comments addressed criticism from Washington in regards to the arrival of Russian military aircraft in Caracas. US Vice President Mike Pence called it an "unwelcome provocation", while US President Donald Trump demanded that Russia "get out" of Venezuela, adding that all options were on the table to force Moscow to do so.
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Russian presidential aide Yuri Ushakov said that the US shouldn't worry about Russian planes in Venezuela, as their deployment had been "done within the framework of normal relations with the legitimate government".