Click to see full-size image
On February 10th, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro kicked off the country’s “most important military drills in history.”
#EnFotos ? | Así dio inicio el jefe de Estado @NicolasMaduro a los Ejercicios Militares #BicentenarioDeAngostura2019 pic.twitter.com/HZNXCdRLSR
— Prensa Presidencial (@PresidencialVen) February 10, 2019
The drills are set to run until February 15th and are expected to become the biggest ones the country has held in its 200-year history, Maduro claimed.
“We must prepare to defend [Venezuela’s] sovereignty, territorial integrity, independence,” Maduro said.
Orgulloso de la capacidad, logística y de despliegue de nuestra digna Milicia Nacional Bolivariana. ¡Rumbo a los 2 Millones de Milicianos y Milicianas! pic.twitter.com/0Dp9KnviPe
— Nicolás Maduro (@NicolasMaduro) February 11, 2019
“Proud of the capacity, logistics and deployment of our worthy national Bolivarian militia. Nearing 2 million militiamen and women!”
Avanzamos en la consolidación de nuestra nueva Doctrina Militar, la “Guerra de Todo el Pueblo”, basados en los ideales de nuestros libertadores y retomada, para la Defensa Integral de la Patria, por nuestro Comandante Chávez. pic.twitter.com/4QIW9VzAm3
— Nicolás Maduro (@NicolasMaduro) February 11, 2019
“We make steps toward consolidation of our new military doctrine, the “War of all the people”, based on the ideals of our liberators and retaken, for the Integral defense of the Fatherland, by our commander Chávez.”
Desde el Fuerte Guaicaipuro en compañía del Estado Mayor Superior, iniciamos la Operación Cívico-Militar “Bicentenario de Angostura 2019”, una demostración de la capacidad de despliegue operativo de nuestra #FANB para la defensa de la Soberanía y la Paz nacional. pic.twitter.com/hHdWc9ef54
— Nicolás Maduro (@NicolasMaduro) February 10, 2019
“From the Guaicaipuro Fort in the company of the Superior General Staff, we began the Civic-Military Operation “Bicentenario de Angostura 2019”, a demonstration of the operational deployment capacity of our #FANB for the defense of the Sovereignty and National Peace.”
#EnVivo ? | “Aquí están los soldados de Bolívar que les harían pagar caro al imperio estadounidense cualquier osadía de tocar el sagrado suelo de la Patria venezolana”, enfatizó el jefe de Estado @NicolasMaduro #BicentenarioDeAngostura2019 pic.twitter.com/kMpLnYW8Yj
— Prensa Presidencial (@PresidencialVen) February 10, 2019
“Here are the soldiers of Bolívar who would make the American empire pay dearly for any daring to touch the sacred soil of the Venezuelan homeland,” the head of state emphasized.
The drills and all the proclamations from Maduro are possibly a result from Guaido’s statement that he may “authorize” a US military intervention in Venezuela.
Also on February 10th, Guaido warned the military not to block the delivery of humanitarian aid, and that doing so would be a “crime against humanity.”
On the same day, US-proclaimed Interim President Juan Guaido gave an interview to RT Spanish. In it he said that “corrupt regime” in Venezuela is solely to blame for its dire humanitarian situation, and promised that democracy will be embraced, with free elections, once Maduro is gone.
“It is not true that there is an economic blockade. There are sanctions against corrupt officials and thieves,” Guaido said. “We have to take care of the humanitarian situation, that is why we are gathering aid, in order to mitigate the disaster created by Maduro.”
“It has absolutely nothing to do with the blockade, it has to do with the fact that the money was stolen!” Guaido claimed. “They robbed Russia, they robbed the people of Venezuela, and now we are starving.”
Meanwhile, the United Nations, as well as the Maduro government blame the US for deliberately exacerbating the situation in Venezuela.
“The economic sanctions are aggravating the already acute crisis affecting the Venezuelan economy, which adds to the damage caused by hyperinflation and the fall in oil prices,” UN Special Rapporteur Idriss Jazairy said. “The use of sanctions by outside powers to overthrow an elected government is in violation of all the norms of international law.”
In the UN, the US and Russia reportedly presented rival UN draft resolutions on Venezuela.
The US draft resolution calls for international aid deliveries and presidential elections in Venezuela while stressing “deep concern with the violence and excessive use of force by Venezuelan security forces against unarmed, peaceful protesters”.
The US expresses “full support for the National Assembly as the only democratically elected institution in Venezuela.”
While the Russian draft resolution criticises any “attempts to intervene in matters which are essentially within the domestic jurisdiction of Venezuela.”
Separately, in an interview in Spanish, the US Latin America Policy Adviser Mauricio Claver-Carone said that Maduro’s “demise is a foregone conclusion.”
“The path we are going down is irreversible … The question is no longer if Maduro accepts this or not, it’s how long it will take him to accept it,” the Cuba hardliner said.
“Claver-Carone, a conservative Cuban-American lawyer, renewed US calls for Venezuela’s military top brass to ditch Maduro, claiming the White House would not “persecute” those who backed “a peaceful and democratic transition”. ‘We are not in the business of revenge, nor are we seeking to settle scores,’ the Guardian reported.
Colombia’s foreign minister, Carlos Holmes Trujillo, also claimed Maduro’s government is “an unburied corpse”.
MORE ON THE TOPIC:
