Caracas [Venezuela], October 23 : Venezuela has deployed 5,000 Russian-made anti-aircraft missiles in "key air defense positions," President Nicolas Maduro claimed on Wednesday, amid growing tension over the United States' military presence in the Caribbean, CNN reported.
US President Donald Trump has said he is weighing military action inside Venezuela as part of a counter-drug trafficking campaign and a broader effort to weaken Maduro, a longtime foe of Washington.
"Any military force in the world knows the power of the Igla-S and Venezuela has no less than 5,000" of them, Maduro said during an event with military personnel broadcast by Venezolana de Television (VTV), CNN reported.
The Russian Igla-S missiles are short-range, low-altitude systems similar to American Stingers. They can shoot down small aerial targets such as cruise missiles and drones, as well as helicopters and low-flying planes.
Maduro said the missiles, light enough to be carried by a single soldier, had been deployed "even in the last mountain, the last town, and the last city of the territory."
The US has deployed 4,500 Marines and sailors to the Caribbean to strengthen operations against cartels and demonstrate military power. It has carried out several lethal strikes on boats off the Caribbean coast that it alleges were trafficking narcotics. Lawmakers from both parties in the US have questioned the legality of the strikes on the alleged "narco boats."
Last week, Trump said he had authorised the CIA to conduct covert action in Venezuela and said the US was considering expanding its military campaign to land, as part of an intensifying US pressure campaign aimed at ousting Maduro. "We are certainly looking at land now, because we've got the sea very well under control," the president told reporters.
The Trump administration has been quietly laying the groundwork for potential military action inside Venezuela for months by tying Maduro to drug traffickers and cartels that officials have designated as terror groups posing an imminent threat to the US, CNN reported.
To date, there is no indication that Trump has decided to target the Venezuelan leader directly. The goal has been to pressure Maduro to step down voluntarily, in part by establishing a credible threat of US military action if he does not.
Maduro has responded by repositioning troops, mobilising "millions" of militia members and denouncing US activity in the region. "The people of Venezuela are clear, united, and aware," Maduro said in a televised speech last week. "They have the means to once again defeat this open conspiracy against the peace and stability of Venezuela."
Maduro has claimed that his volunteer militias now have more than 8 million reservists, though experts have called into question that number and the quality of the troops' training, CNN reported.
According to Rosoboronexport, the Russian state company that exports Igla-S systems, they have a range of up to 6,000 meters and can reach targets at a maximum altitude of 3,500 meters.
CNN noted that the exact number of Igla-S missiles cited by Maduro could not be independently verified but confirmed that the systems were part of Venezuela's arsenal. Venezuela's defense minister, Vladimir Padrino, has been photographed several times with the launchers in Caracas.
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