The Minister of Defense and General in Chief of the Bolivarian National Armed Forces, Vladimir Padrino López, issued a statement reporting that the military alert level has been increased in the country, in accordance, the note reads, “with the orders issued by citizen Nicolás Maduro Moros, constitutional president of the Bolivarian Republic and commander in chief”. Padrino’s announcement, according to the statement, specifies the implementation of “a higher phase” of the so-called “Independence Plan 200”, a military response mechanism ordered in September to strengthen defense mechanisms against the US military deployment in the Caribbean.
The measure will come into force from Tuesday 11 November to Wednesday 12 November and involves “putting the country’s entire military park into complete operational readiness” and the massive deployment “of land, air, naval, river and missile assets; weapon systems; military units; Bolivarian Militia; Citizen Security Bodies and Global Defense Commands”.
The government invites the plan to be implemented following one of the organizational maxims of the Chavista regime, that is, “in perfect civic-military-police fusion”. Making this announcement, Padrino, on behalf of the country’s military leadership, declares that the divisions of the Bolivian National Armed Forces (FANB) are “more strengthened than ever in their unity, moral cohesion and equipment, together with the Venezuelan people, to preserve at all costs the sacred interests of the country”.
Contrary to some predictions that claimed the opposite, both during 2024, an election year, and in 2025, in which Maduro once again assumed the functions of President of the Republic, the Venezuelan army offered new and repeated signals of its total adherence to the interests, narrative and political objectives of Chavismo.
The decision increases political and military tension between the United States and Venezuela. While Caracas makes these announcements, the aircraft carrier Gerardo Ford -the largest and most gifted of all those in the United States-, continues his journey towards South America. It is expected to arrive in the Caribbean Sea this week.
Although the internal situation in the country seems calm – and even disbelief persists among many – the warnings that the elderly Chavista government issues in its public speeches regarding the imminent possibility of a US military attack on Venezuela are frequent.
The ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) agreed at an extraordinary meeting to move to “an armed phase of the revolutionary process” if hostilities broke out. These types of warnings, interspersed with incessant calls for peace, have become increasingly frequent in statements from the Chavista revolutionary leadership in recent weeks.
Days ago Maduro declared, in a political meeting with his supporters from the trade union world, that “the order is given: if there is an attack against the country, we will declare a general, insurrectionary and revolutionary strike”. The Venezuelan president had stated on that occasion that the working class “is the greatest shield that Venezuela has against imperialist aggression”.
