Armed forces say ‘special naval militia’ involved in Caribbean deployment as defence minister cites ‘threatening, vulgar voice’ of Washington
Venezuela says it has begun three days of military exercises on its Caribbean island of La Orchila as tensions soar amid US military activity in the region.
Forces deployed for what Washington called an anti-drug operation have blown up at least two Venezuelan boats and a combined 14 people allegedly transporting drugs across the Caribbean this month – a move slammed by UN experts as “extrajudicial execution”.
The strikes and a deployment of US warships in the region have raised fears of an invasion in Venezuela, whose president, Nicolás Maduro, has been accused by Washington of being a cartel leader.
The exercise ordered by Maduro as commander-in-chief was baptised “Sovereign Caribbean”, said the defence minister, Vladimir Padrino López.
“There will be air defence deployments with armed drones, surveillance drones, submarine drones … We are going to implement electronic warfare actions,” he said on Wednesday, citing the “threatening, vulgar voice” of the US.
Public television showed images of amphibious vessels and warships deployed off La Orchila, where Venezuela has a military base.
The armed forces said the exercises would involve 12 ships, 22 aircraft and 20 small boats from the “special naval militia”.
La Orchila island is close to the area where the US intercepted and held a Venezuelan fishing vessel for eight hours over the weekend.
Maduro, whose last two elections were not recognised by the US and many other countries, has vowed that Caracas will defend itself against what he labelled US “aggression” against his country.
Washington is offering a $50m bounty for the arrest of Maduro, who faces drug trafficking charges.
Venezuela has urged an investigation of a US strike on an alleged drug boat early this month that killed 11 people.
It was one of three Venezuelan vessels the US president, Donald Trump, said his country had “knocked off” without providing details.
“One doesn’t know, because they say it carried drugs but who saw the drugs?”, the interior minister, Diosdado Cabello, said earlier on Wednesday as he claimed Venezuela was cracking down on narcotics.
Cabello told reporters that officials had seized more than 60 tonnes of drugs so far this year.
“It is the largest amount that has been seized since 2010,” said Cabello, who – like Maduro and other senior officials – is under US sanctions.
Trump has justified taking military action by posting on social media that “violent drug trafficking cartels POSE A THREAT to US National Security, Foreign Policy, and vital US Interests”.
The US government has released videos of two of the boat strikes and claims it has irrefutable evidence the people killed were US-bound traffickers, without providing details to back up the claims.
Caracas has consistently denied being a trafficking hub.
Source: www.theguardian.com