Venezuelan Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino López said officials were placing "the entire country's military arsenal on full operational readiness," with preparations including the "massive deployment of ground, aerial, naval, riverine and missile forces."
Padrino said Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, above, directly ordered the massive deployment as part of the special operation, with land, air, naval and reserve forces to carry out war drills through Wednesday to "optimize command, control and communications" and ensure the country's defense.
He said the move was in response to the "imperialist threat" posed by the U.S. sending warships and thousands of troops into the Caribbean Sea.
The Venezuelan military exercises also will reportedly involve the Bolivarian Militia, a civilian reserve force created by former President Hugo Chávez.
The mobilization announcement came shortly after the U.S. Navy said the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford and its strike group arrived in the Latin American region Tuesday, in the U.S. Southern Command area of operations.
The vessel's arrival was anticipated for weeks, as the Pentagon announced Oct. 24 that it had ordered the Ford to relocate to Latin America from Europe.
The Navy's most modern aircraft carrier, the Ford carries 4,000 sailors, with numerous more aboard the three destroyers that accompanied it, the USS Bainbridge, USS Mahan and USS Winston S. Churchill.
The group's entry also increases the number of American troops in the region to about 15,000, with officials arguing it is meant to dismantle transnational criminal organizations and curb drug-smuggling.
The buildup — which includes eight warships already there, an estimated 5,000 service members at U.S. facilities in Puerto Rico, and several bomber training flights flown near the Venezuelan coast — is an extraordinary military presence in a region that typically has only one or two Navy vessels to help the U.S. Coast Guard in drug-interdiction missions.
The Trump administration also has upended how it usually handles alleged drug boats, carrying out at least 19 strikes that have killed at least 76 people since September. U.S. officials have claimed the strikes were justified as they argue without evidence that the vessels were carrying drugs bound for the U.S.
Read the full report at thehill.com.
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