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Venezuela's President Nicolás Maduro. - THE Venezuelan military is preparing to mount a guerilla-type resistance should the US forces attack the country, given the arrival to the southern Caribbean Sea on Tuesday of the USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN-78) – an aircraft carrier of the US Navy – which is the lead component in the carrier strike group (CSG).
A November 11 report in international news media outlet Reuters cited sources in Caracas who are familiar with preparations who indicated Venezuela's plan includes deploying weapons such as decades-old Russian-made equipment.
According to Reuters' sources, the guerilla-type tactics would involve small military units carrying out acts of sabotage at over 280 locations in a move the government calls "prolonged resistance."
The second tactic would be "anarchisation," by using the intelligence services and armed ruling-party supporters to create disorder on the streets of Caracas and make Venezuela ungovernable for foreign forces.
Meanwhile, CNN has reported that Venezuela was launching a "massive mobilisation" of military personnel, weapons and equipment with land, air, naval and reserve forces carrying out exercises through to Wednesday, according to Defence Minister Vladimir Padrino López, who described the deployment as a response to “imperialist threat” posed by the US military build-up.
CNN quoted Lopez as saying the objective of the exercise was to “optimise command, control and communications” and ensure the defence of the country as ordered by Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro.
The US military has been amassing military assets in the Southern Caribbean since August to combat what officials said was narco-terrorism and narco-trafficking particularly out of Venezuela.
Since September 2, there have been 19 air strikes on suspected narco-traffickers across both the Caribbean Sea and the Eastern Pacific, resulting in at least 75 deaths.
Among assets already present in the Caribbean Sea are amphibious assault ship USS Iwo Jima, transport docks USS San Antonio and USS Fort Lauderdale, nuclear-powered fast attack submarine USS Newport News, floating base MV Ocean Trader, at least 10 F-35 stealth fighters in Puerto Rico and several MQ-9 Reaper drones.
The latest addition is the Gerald R Ford carrier strike group (CSG), which entered the US Southern Command area of responsibility (US SOUTHCOM AOR) on November 11, a US Navy release said.
US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth retasked the CSG to the Caribbean on October 24 from operations in the Mediterranean Sea, in order to support President Trump’s directive to dismantle transnational criminal organisations and counter narco-terrorism.
“The enhanced US force presence in the USSOUTHCOM AOR will bolster US capacity to detect, monitor, and disrupt illicit actors and activities that compromise the safety and prosperity of the United States homeland and our security in the Western Hemisphere,” Chief Pentagon Spokesperson Sean Parnell said.
“These forces will enhance and augment existing capabilities to disrupt narcotics trafficking and degrade and dismantle transnational criminal organisations.”
With more than 4,000 sailors and dozens of tactical aircraft aboard, Gerald R Ford provides combatant commanders and America’s civilian leaders increased capacity to project power through sustained operations at sea, the release said.
The US Navy believes the CSG will augment joint forces already in the area of responsibility, including the Iwo Jima Amphibious Ready Group and embarked Marine Expeditionary Unit, under a Joint Task Force, created to defeat and dismantle criminal networks that exploit the US' shared borders and maritime domains.
The US military build-up and targeted strikes on suspected naro-traffickers has received the ringing endorsement of Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar who has gone so far as to ridicule the so-called "zone of peace" as articulated by Caricom member states.
On the weekend, about 200 people from several groups and organisations gathered at Woodford Square in Port of Spain for a vigil for peace. The prime minister has since been reported as saying that event was a "dismal failure."
Efforts to reach Persad-Bissessar and Defence Minister Wayne Sturge on Tuesday, for a comment on the arrival to the Caribbean of the Gerald R Ford carrier strike group, proved futile.
English (US) ·