Caracas has ordered a “massive deployment” of troops following the arrival of the American naval armada to the region
Venezuela has placed its armed forces on high alert and ordered a massive nationwide troop deployment in response to the continued US military buildup in the Caribbean.
Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino Lopez announced late on Tuesday that nearly 200,000 military personnel had been mobilized and placed on “full operational readiness,” with land, air, naval and reserve forces ordered to conduct war drills through Wednesday to ensure the country’s defense.
The announcement came shortly after the US Navy said that the aircraft carrier ‘USS Gerald R. Ford’ and its three accompanying warships had entered the area overseen by the US Southern Command, which the Pentagon defines as covering most of Latin America and the Caribbean.
The ‘Ford’, the US Navy’s largest and most modern carrier, with around 4,000 sailors on board, has been redeployed from European waters to Latin America as part of a mission to “disrupt narcotics trafficking.” Its arrival has reportedly pushed the US military presence in the wider Caribbean region to roughly 15,000 personnel.
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