On the morning of Tuesday, 14th of May, 2024, this publication made a Facebook Post stating that the bridge linking the Venezuelan Bolivar State to the Ankoko Island*, which was constructed by the Venezuelan military, was washed away by a flash flood. The post read as follows:
Unconfirmed reports coming out of Venezuela are that the bridge which the Venezuelan military built connecting the state of Bolivar to Ankoko Island was SWEPT AWAY BY A FLASH FLOOD and a number of Venezuelan soldiers are MISSING. The source also said that Venezuela will ask help from the GDF in locating the missing soldiers.
Needless to say, this type of incident would be heavily suppressed by the Venezuelan military and government, and such news would not be carried in most pro-Venezuelan media. Nevertheless, the information was relayed to the Guyana, South America Publication via a somewhat reliable source.
After we made the Facebook Post, many Guyanese rejoiced making comments like “God is with us,” and “karma is real.” However, some Venezuelan propagandists quickly condemned the post as “Fake News,” saying that the bridge is still intact. Over the last twenty four hours, Team Guyana, South America launched a thorough investigation to determine the authenticity of this information.
Despite efforts by the Venezuelan military and propaganda presses to suppress the information, the Guyana, South America publication received confirmation through our intelligence network today, 15th of May, 2024, that the bridge did suffer an erosion on both edges which rendered it unusable. However, the original information posted was exaggerated as follows:
The bridge linking Ankoko Island to Bolivar state did suffer an erosion which rendered it unusable. However, the bridge was not “washed away by a flash flood.”
No military personnel went missing during the incident as stated in the unconfirmed report, and as such, there was no need to ask help from the GDF.
The Venezuelan military constructed the bridge to link mainland Venezuela at Bolivar state with the once-disputed Ankoko Island which Venezuela now uses as a military base. The bridge was constructed during the dry season when the water in the Cuyuni River was very low. Dams were build into both sides of the river to support the steel structure.
Sometime during the night of Monday, 13th of May, 2024, as the water of the Cuyuni River rose due to heavy rainfall, the dams which supported the bridge on both sides eroded, rendering the bridge unworkable. The Venezuelan military personnel on the ground at Ankoko Island received instructions to dismantle the bridge which they did and at the time of this article (May 15th, 2024), there is no longer a bridge linking Ankoko Island to mainland Venezuela.
Some sources have opined that the bridge was a temporary measure to move military equipment over to Ankoko Island, and that the objective was already achieved and so Venezuela no longer needs the bridge. Others have posited that the erosion of the bridge is a reflection of low level of intelligence on the part of the engineers who constructed the bridge, lack of foresight, and an underestimation of the power of a flowing body of water.
Venezuelan propaganda presses continue to report that the bridge is still intact, and that the Venezuelan military is now in the process of constructing a 27 meter-long bridge from Ankoko Island to Guyana.
*Ankoko Island is called “Isla de Anacoco” in Spanish.
