Communes in Venezuela have responded to President Nicolás Maduro’s call to prepare for a possible armed confrontation with the United Stateswhich maintaine a vast military deployment in the Caribbean Sea defended by the Republican ruler, Donald Trump, as part of a strategy against drug trafficking, but for Caracas it represents a “threat.”
Last September, after the arrival of US ships and troops in waters near the South American country, Maduro announced the creation of the Militia Communal Units in 5,336 areas of the country, which will group, in turn, the so-called “Comprehensive Popular Defense Base”, with the task of guaranteeing “the peace” that – the ruler anticipated – “the country had never had.”
The citizen mobilization occurred alongside the United States air and naval deployment in the Caribbean, a region that remains in suspense due to the attacks at sea on more than 20 boats that the White House links to drug trafficking and Trump’s recent warning that they will begin “very soon” to arrest “drug traffickers in Venezuela” on land.
In response to the deployment in the Caribbean, Chavismo called for an enlistment process in which, according to the Venezuelan government, more than eight million people were enrolled in the Militia, as a special component of the Bolivarian National Armed Forces (FANB) is known, made up of civilians with military training.
Alerts
“We are alert, we actually hope that peace is the most convenient thing (…) that these people think that we are not stupid either, because we are not going to give up,” Felicita Quesada, a 73-year-old woman and member of a commune in western Caracas, told EFE.
Quesada, who went to the polls on November 23 to participate in this year’s fourth popular consultation aimed at choosing local projects that will be financed by the State, explained that in recent weeks they have organized meetings and assemblies in the communities to keep citizens informed and prepare them in case an attack against Venezuelan territory occurs.
“We already know what we are going to do, where we are going to attack, where we are going to go, where we are going to protect our people at the time of any attack,” said Enlli Rodríguez, 47, for her part.
As he explained to EFE, in his commune, located in the southwest of Caracas, they have received training on how to react in the event of a US attack, because the area has a direct exit to Fuerte Tiuna, the main military installation in the country.
However, Fátima Goncalves, first sergeant of the Militia, 51, declared herself confident that the situation will not escalate, since Venezuela has the support of Russia.
“Venezuela is not a country of war, but if they look for us they will find us,” he stated, in dialogue with EFE.
The spokespersons for the ruling party have spoken along the same lines.
“Whoever dares to set foot in Venezuela is going to face the fury of a people that has never surrendered in more than 500 years,” stressed the Minister of the Interior and Justice and number two of Chavismo, Diosdado Cabello, last Wednesday on his television program ‘Con el mallet giving’.
“There are no rules here,” Cabello said, reiterating this warning, “once someone sets foot in Venezuela.”
Christmas, a tradition
And although the military training ordered by Maduro has been carried out in the communes, the celebration of Christmas, brought forward by the president himself to October 1, is maintained.
“Here they celebrate, they have fun, they are preparing for Christmas. Everything is becoming normal, without any problems,” Maximiliano Solórzano, executive spokesperson for a commune in Petare, the largest neighborhood in the South American country, told EFE.
Also Johan Villanueva, member of a commune in the southwest of the Venezuelan capital, He stated that people “are at peace” and enjoying Christmas.
“Here people are enjoying our holidays, communicating with each other, trusting in ourselves that somehow we are going to succeed in this new attempt by that North American empire,” he added.
Maduro himself, who usually dances at many of his public events, has assured that Venezuelans like the “bochinche (party).”
