Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro marches with the High Command of the Bolivarian National Armed Forces (FANB) at the launching of the Bolivarian Shield 2025 Military Drills, on Wednesday, January 22, 2025. Photo: Presidential Press.
The president of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, has initiated the deployment of the Bolivarian Shield 2025 military drills, which seeks to improve the operational readiness of the Bolivarian National Armed Forces (FANB) in joint union with the police forces and the civilian people of Venezuela.
These maneuvers, which the president led on the morning of Wednesday, January 22, will be carried out in perfect popular, military, and police union in order to strengthen the capabilities, in strategic, operational, and tactical areas, of the FANB, to facilitate the integral defense of the nation.
From the courtyard of honor of the Bolivarian Military University of Venezuela in Caracas, the head of state recalled that in 2025, it will be 19 years since the birth of the Bolivarian Shield drills, originally developed “to defend our right to live, to exist, for the peace of a beautiful Venezuela that has risen in the exercise of its unending sovereignty.”
“I hope that today,” President Maduro said, “the powerful union of the popular-military-police fusion, the people of our Liberator Simón Bolívar, the great people of Commander Hugo Chávez, will flourish again. We have begun this exercise to guarantee peace, sovereignty, freedom, and true democracy in our land.”
According to the presidential press, this exercise will implement operations that will guarantee the military defense and internal order of the country, thus ensuring the operation of basic services and the security of strategic facilities. At the same time, the maneuvers will support security in cities and borders throughout the territory of Venezuela.
After leading a march of the High Command of the FANB, President Maduro addressed the nation, and officiated the beginning of the drills in the different security and defense centers spread all over Venezuela.
The Venezuelan Minister of Interior, Diosdado Cabello, led the beginning of the drills in Zulia state. From there, he reported that military aviation exercises had been launched to demostrate the capacities of the FANB in neutralizing narcojet operations. He also stated that Venezuela is in a state of alert as a result of the paramilitary crisis in Colombia, in full solidarity with the Colombian people displaced from Colombia to Venezuela. Additionally, this alert will serve to prevent any attempt to import this violence to Venezuela as part of the threats launched by the local and international far-right dreaming of a mercenary operation to oust the legitimate and sovereign government of President Maduro.
Venezuela: Bolivarian Shield 2025 Military Drill to Begin on January 22
The third T of the 7 transformations
President Maduro also reported that, with the launch of these military maneuvers, the activation of the third T of the great transformation of the 2025-2031 Venezuelan National Plan has been declared.
“This T refers to citizen security and the defense of the homeland, in unity and territorial sovereignty,” he explained. “These are the guidelines that have been built and are in the hands of the National Assembly. Once the National Assembly approves them, it will be Organic Law of the Republic and we can continue building on it.”
The head of state further assured that peace and independence are not static but rather dynamic processes, as “threats move, and we move in front of them [to block].”
(Alba Ciudad) with Orinoco Tribune content
Translation: Orinoco Tribune
OT/JRE/AU
