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Venezuela says it has begun large-scale military exercises with the goal of protecting its airspace against potential foreign aggression.
The army, militias, police and community leaders affiliated to the government of Nicolás Maduro are said to be involved in the drills, which started throughout the country on Tuesday.
“We will continue in our determination to prepare ourselves to defend our homeland in all areas, whatever the threat, its intensity, its proportion,” said Venezuelan Defence Minister General Vladimir Padrino López in statements broadcast on state television.
These manoeuvres are taking place in the context of growing tension with the US, following the Trump administration’s order to send warships close to Venezuela.
The US has conducted multiple air strikes on ships in the Caribbean in recent months, including one announced by US Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth earlier this week.
Hegseth said the latest attack targeted two alleged drug trafficking boats in the eastern Pacific, killing six people.
At least 75 people have been killed in a total of 19 strikes since the Trump administration launched its anti-drug offensive in the region.
Some see the move as a pressure tactic against the Venezuelan president, who has been charged with narcoterrorism in the US.
Maduro has accused the US government of “fabricating” a war against him.
Increased focus on military training since US strikes began
The US strikes, which began in early September, initially targeted vessels in the Caribbean Sea, but the focus has increasingly shifted to ships in the eastern Pacific, where much of the cocaine from the world’s largest producers is smuggled.
Trump has justified the strikes by saying the United States is in “armed conflict” with drug cartels and by claiming the boats are operated by foreign terror organisations that are flooding America’s cities with drugs.
His administration has provided no evidence for its assertions, and US politicians, including Republicans, have pressed for more information on who is being targeted and the legal justification for the strikes.
Maduro began mobilising his country’s military not long after the strikes began in September. He has launched a campaign urging civilians to enlist, claiming that there is a threat of a US invasion.
On a visit to an enlistment site in late September, Padrino López, the Venezuelan defence minister, called on his compatriots to defend themselves “from imperialist aggression against Venezuela”.
Venezuela’s civilian militias were created by the late President Hugo Chávez to integrate volunteers into national defence efforts.
Members receive military training and often participate in large-scale exercises.
Additional sources • AP