Caracas - Venezuelan Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino on Sunday condemned the attempt by employees of the opposition lawmaker Juan Guaido to sell weapons stolen from the Bolivarian National Armed Force (FANB).

On his Twitter account, the minister described the theft of rifles from the Republic during the attempted coup d'état on April 30 as outrageous and offensive for the FANB.

'It is nonsense and an immorality that those disguised as 'democracy' resort to politics with such baseness,' Padrino wrote. The FANB joined denunciations by the Government on the implication of two collaborators of the self-proclaimed president in the sale of weapons stolen during the attempted coup d'état.

'Such an act clearly shows the ethical and moral baseness of those involved in the hasty extremist action, who not only appropriated the weapons violently against legally-established State institutions, but also against their compatriots, as they aimed and used them on a public highway,' the FANB said in a communiqué.

The military corps also denounced the attempt to sale the weapons to make profit from the rifles, which would certainly be used by criminals of the same sort, against the Venezuelan people.

'The Bolivarian National Armed Force repeats that it will not tolerate under any circumstances and will act strongly against that kind of act typical of criminal and unscrupulous groups that are trying to alter the nation's peace and stability.'