Following the U.S. Senate rejecting a resolution to block U.S. military actions against Venezuela, and the Pentagon confirming that the largest U.S. aircraft carrier is heading to Latin America, Venezuela is countering with its own two-day military mobilization.
Venezuelan Defense Minister General Vladimir Padrino López announced a large-scale military mobilization during a news conference on Tuesday, calling it a defensive response to perceived threats from the United States.
“Almost 200,000 troops have been deployed throughout the national territory for this exercise, and I must say that this is not at the expense of the daily deployment carried out by the Strategic Operational Command,” Padrino López stated in the televised address.
Venezuela’s ministry of defense also posted about the exercise on social media.
The address, broadcast on state-run Venezolana de Televisión (VTV), outlined the expansion of President Nicolás Maduro’s “Independence Plan 200,” a civic-military strategy to combine conventional armed forces and police, as well as other security bodies, in the name of national defense.
Padrino López’s remarks took place amid a backdrop of expanded U.S. military activity in the Caribbean Sea, such as the deployment of the USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier, the largest U.S. aircraft carrier, and associated naval and aerial assets. Trump also authorized the CIA to operate covertly in Venezuela, he confirmed last month.
Hellbound and Down 