The Chavista leader Nicolás Maduro, who was sworn in as president for a third six-year term, after his questioned re-election, announced this Sunday that on January 22 and 23, military and police exercises will be carried out to guarantee the “peace” and “sovereignty” of the Caribbean nation.
“We are going to defend borders, coasts, cities, vital elements of the country, all together to guarantee peace, national sovereignty, to guarantee true democracy,” Maduro said in a video published on Telegram. Likewise, he said that this will serve to demonstrate that Venezuela “has the power to live in peace, in the exercise of its full sovereignty and in democracy, in freedom.” “You know, January 22 and 23, we are going to the Bolivarian Shield 2025 exercises, the first popular, military, police exercise of the year,” he added.
On Wednesday, Maduro ordered the Armed Forces and police forces to prepare and oil “the rifles” in the face of what he considered “criminal threats” from former presidents Álvaro Uribe and Iván Duque, who recently advocated for an “international intervention” in the Caribbean country. .
Faced with this possibility, he called on the Bolivarian National Armed Forces (FANB) “as a whole”, “all intelligence and counterintelligence police forces” and “all popular power” not to lower their guard and keep active the plans that , he noted, allowed “the victory against fascism and Uribism.”
In addition, Maduro asked the military to continue with the Quick Reaction Units (URRAS) of the FANB and special operations, as well as to monitor “well all the border crossings” of the country, which borders Colombia and Brazil.
Opposition pressure
On January 11, Uribe requested an international intervention for Venezuela, endorsed by the United Nations, to remove Maduro from power, who was sworn in before the Parliament – controlled by Chavismo -, which the majority opposition, which demands the electoral triumph of Edmundo González Urrutia, denounced as the consummation of a “coup d’état.”
Later, Maduro said “no one wants military intervention,” adding that, on the contrary, Venezuelans want “democracy, freedom, understanding, harmony, reconciliation, reunion.”
Likewise, he warned that his country is preparing, together with Cuba and Nicaragua, to “take up arms,” if necessary, in order to defend “the right to peace” and the “homeland.”
