Maduro’s militiamen, rifle in hand, confront the United States: ‘Ready to defend Venezuela’The scenes are astonishing. Men and women of all ages and physical conditions, zigzagging and crawling across the ground, rifles in hand. Quickly hiding behind mounds to avoid enemy fire. Aiming and firing with the greatest possible precision. Crossing a river, holding onto a rope. Perched on a tree, scanning the horizon with binoculars. The enemy seems to be at the door.
Venezuela is training its civilian population in combat tactics in case the United States — which has deployed forces in the Caribbean Sea and claims that Nicolás Maduro is an illegitimate president — takes the final step and attacks the country. Although a war scenario sounds impossible to many, the Venezuelan government has taken the signals from the White House very seriously, with the U.S. naval detachment having blown up at least five vessels that have left the Venezuelan coast allegedly on drug-smuggling runs and amid Donald Trump’s threats about striking targets on land.
Nervousness has soared among Maduro and his Praetorian Guard. Chavismo claims to have several million combatants at the ready — a figure impossible to verify — and hope to add even more with these crash-course exercises. More than one observer has raised an eyebrow. Facing them would be the U.S. military, with the greatest firepower in human history, one capable of subduing Iran in a single night with the most powerful non-nuclear bombs in existence. However, Maduro and the regime’s deputy, Diosdado Cabello, and even Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino, have shown no sign of submission in the face of Washington’s threat and often cite the war experiences of Vietnam and Afghanistan as examples that resistance is possible.
Most of those who have participated in the training are linked in one way or another to the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), the ruling party. They call it “a patriotic duty,” according to militia members interviewed by this newspaper. The training sessions have been televised. They have been carried out in the areas of Petare and Coche; and in La Guaira and Guarenas, near Caracas. The National Bolivarian Armed Forces have patrolled Caracas’s highways with their heaviest weapons. It has been stated that the training will include all of the country’s Communal Councils. Civilians are trained in close combat, weapons disassembly, shooting prac
Post too long. Click here to view the full text.