Venezuela Drug Suspects Killed

Army troops killed two suspected drug-war guerrillas in a shoot-out today near the Colombian border, the second in less than a week, Defense Ministry officials said.

Gen. Pedro Rangel Rojas told a news conference the gunmen clashed with an infantry patrol at 5 a.m. at Las Gaviotas, 372 miles southwest of Caracas on the border of the two countries. Venezuelan troops suffered no losses, he said. The guerrillas, suspected of being allied to the drug trade, left behind a submachine gun, a rifle and a boat, Rangel Rojas said.