Caracas, Jan 22 (EFE).- Venezuela mobilized 150,000 troops throughout its territory for the first military and police exercises of the year to defend its “internal order,” the Bolivarian National Armed Forces reported Wednesday.
In a ceremony broadcast on state-owned VTV, the strategic operational commander of the armed forces, Domingo Hernández, announced that 290 “strategic exercises” would be held throughout the country between Wednesday and Thursday.
The official explained that these drills were intended for the “maintenance of internal order” and the “control of borders” by “air, sea, and land,” as well as for the protection of national infrastructure, basic services, and the security of ports and airports.
The general added that the drills would ” assess the level of readiness for military and integral defense during armed and unarmed struggle.”
Land borders with Brazil and Colombia were closed during the military exercises.
Nicolás Maduro had already announced on Sunday that military and police exercises called Bolivarian Shield 2025 would be held this week to “defend the borders, coasts and cities” and to guarantee “peace” and “sovereignty.”
Recently, Maduro warned that Venezuela was preparing, along with Cuba and Nicaragua, to “take up arms” if necessary to defend “the right to peace” and “the homeland,” and ordered the FANB and police forces to prepare and “oil the guns” against what he described as “criminal threats” from former Colombian presidents Álvaro Uribe and Iván Duque, who recently advocated “international intervention” in the Caribbean country.
The Venezuelan opposition and a large part of the international community have refused to recognize Maduro’s re-election in the Jul. 28 elections after the National Electoral Council refused to publish a tabulation of the results, as required by law. EFE
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