Venezuela orders military drill
CARACAS— Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro on Monday ordered his Armed Forces to carry out a national exercise next week in response to US President Donald Trump’s threat of possible military action.
“I have given the order to the Armed Forces’ joint chiefs of staff to start preparations for a national civil-military exercise for the integrated armed defense of the Venezuelan nation,” he told thousands of supporters in a Caracas rally.
The drill will take place on Aug. 26 and 27, he said.
Maduro’s government has seized on Trump’s warning on Friday that he was looking at a range of scenarios against Venezuela, “including a possible military option if necessary.” Venezuelan Defense Minister General Vladimir Padrino called it “crazy,” saying it showed that America had “dropped its mask” in terms of wanting to attack his country.
The Maduro administration says Trump’s words bolster its oft-repeated claim that United States has designs to grab control of Venezuela’s proven oil reserves, the largest in the world.
The threat, made in response to Venezuela’s deepening economic crisis and Maduro’s moves toward what the United States labels a “dictatorship,” has been rebuffed by all of Latin America—even countries opposed to Venezuela.
The Pentagon said it had received no orders from Trump to ready any sort of military action against Venezuela.
US Vice President Mike Pence, who is touring allies in Latin America to marshall joint action against Caracas, said Trump’s warning stood—but he hoped a “peaceable solution” would be found.
The Caracas rally stretching in front of Maduro took up the president’s exhortations against the United States with cries of “Yankee go home!”
The leftist leader vowed to “defend the country with tanks, planes, missiles.” Venezuela, an ally to Cuba and Russia, reportedly bought Russian antiaircraft defenses and tanks years ago, under Maduro’s predecessor Hugo Chavez.
Pence, on his first stop of tour taking in Colombia, Argentina, Chile and Panama, said the United States intended to prevent Venezuela becoming a “failed state.”
“We will not stand by as Venezuela crumbles, but it’s important to note, as the president said, that a failed state in Venezuela threatens the security and prosperity of the hemisphere,” Pence told reporters in the Colombian city of Cartagena.
He told Cable News Network in an interview that Venezuela risked becoming “a greater problem for narcotics traffic” and “greater migration”—both of which he said directly threatened the security and economy of the United States.
On Sunday, Pence stood by Trump’s threat of possible military action, saying that the US president “says what he means and means what he says.” But he expressed hope that a “peaceable solution” could be found.