Venezuela carried out military exercises in coastal areas on Saturday after the US deployed ships off its coast, stirring invasion fears.
Washington has deployed military vessels to the Caribbean based on claims of combatting drug trafficking, targeting at least three boats in recent weeks allegedly loaded with drugs from Venezuela, resulting in 14 fatalities.
Caracas denounces the US deployment, calling it a “military threat.”
Saturday’s exercises, in the northwest state of Falcon and the northeast state of Sucre, coincided with a government-ordered drill to prepare for natural disasters.
Video from state-run broadcaster VTV showed Venezuela’s National Bolivarian Armed Forces (FANB) moving military equipment near Cape San Roman, a coastal city about 27 kilometers (17 miles) south of Aruba.
The exercise involved cannons being fired into the sea and amphibious vehicles being disembarked from a boat and moving onto shore. Trucks carried Russian-made Pechora anti-aircraft missiles to the area.
The military also led an exercise to occupy Patos Island, an uninhabited island near the border with Trinidad and Tobago, deploying helicopters and paratroopers.
And an anti-narcotics operation by the FANB in Sucre involved more than 5,200 troops, resulting in 30 arrests and ten boats seized, according to General Domingo Hernandez Larez.
Saturday also saw emergency drills being run throughout the country, with the first being an earthquake drill, especially pertinent given the country’s two tremors above magnitude 6.0 earlier this week.
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© Agence France-Presse
