Last week, warships arrived in the Caribbean, and Venezuela’s dictator Vincent Maduro reacted with empty threats. He more recently appeared on TV in fatigues, boasting of China’s and Russia’s support to repel the “Gringo Empire.”
When the warships arrived, Mr. Maduro said that he was deploying 4.5 million militiamen around the country. “No empire will touch the sacred soil of Venezuela, nor should it touch the sacred soil of South America,” he said.
The militia force Mr. Maduro was referring to is made up of volunteers and is the least battle-ready of the country’s military branches, said Carolina Jiménez Sandoval, president of the Washington Office on Latin America, a research organization.
Ms. Jiménez Sandoval said it wasn’t plausible to think the militia has so many members. Venezuela’s population is about 28 million people. She called the Maduro numbers “a boisterous way of showing power.”
No one thinks he has those numbers, including him.
The reality is that the United States is boosting its maritime force in the waters off Venezuela to combat threats from Latin American drug cartels with the expected arrival of more vessels next week.
They are going to target boats operated by drug cartels transporting fentanyl to the United States.
There is no land invasion planned.
Maduro is a drug dealer, and might finally be heading for extinction, but don’t count on it.
I did not know Madura had said he has 4.5 million men
he is delusional