The Minister of Defense of VenezuelaVladimir Padrino López reported that this Tuesday 200,000 soldiers were mobilized as part of new preparation exercises against the “threats” of the United States, which maintains a naval and air deployment in the waters of the Caribbean Sea.
“Almost 200,000 troops have been deployed throughout the national territory to this exercise and I must say that this does not detract from the daily deployment carried out by the Strategic Operational Command (…) combating the other threats with everything,” said Padrino López in statements to the state channel. Venezuelan Television (VTV).
Land, air, naval means…
Godfather, the agency specifies EFEindicated hours before, through a statement published on Instagram, that the deployment began at 04:00 local time and will end today, Wednesday.
This mobilization includes “land, air, naval, river and missile means (sic)”, as well as weapons systems, military units, the Bolivarian Militia, citizen security bodies and commands for comprehensive defense, according to Padrino López.
Likewise, he continued, “the Management Bodies for Comprehensive Defense (ODDI) will be fully activated in all states and federal and municipal entities.”
A defense law
In parallel, the National Assembly (AN, Parliament) of Venezuela, controlled by Chavismo, approved this Tuesday a law to defend the country against the United States military deployment in the Caribbean Sea.
The ‘Law of the Command for the Comprehensive Defense of the Nation’ – which must be published in the Official Gazette for it to come into effect – provides, among other actions, for the collection of information by the working committees of the Management Bodies for Comprehensive Defense (ODDI), with the objective of “identifying patterns, trends and potential risks that allow determining the severity and impact of threats against the security of the nation.”
The ODDI are, as Maduro explained last January, “instances of planning, coordination, integration and execution of all powers of the State,” to guarantee “the right to peace.”
military deployment
The United States has said that 75 people died and around twenty boats were destroyed in the operation carried out in Caribbean waters and later expanded to the Pacific, defended by President Donald Trump’s Administration as a campaign against drug trafficking.
The Maduro Government, for its part, has denounced that this military presence is a plan to promote a “regime change” and impose a “puppet” authority in Venezuela with which the US can “seize” its natural resources, mainly oil.
The US deploys the Gerald Ford aircraft carrier to the Caribbean amid tensions with Venezuela
This Tuesday the USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier strike group finally arrived in the US Southern Command area of operations, which includes most of Latin America, according to a report from cnn.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered Ford — the Navy’s most advanced carrier strike group — to the Caribbean from Europe late last month, and according to the US network, the strike group brings with it nine air squadrons, anti-surface capabilities and the integrated air and missile defense command ship USS Winston S. Churchill.
