VENEZUELA has reinforced its border with Colombia after three soldiers were killed in an armed attack yesterday that is believed to have been carried out by Colombian guerilla group the National Liberation Army (ELN).

Ten other soldiers were injured in the attack in Amazonas state, Venezuelan Defence Minister Vladimir Padrino Lopez reported, calling it retribution for Venezuela’s capture of nine Colombian paramilitary members.

“We will find the paramilitaries wherever they are,” he said. “For now I say to them: ‘Leave Venezuela. There is no space here. There has never been any space here for you’.”