Venezuela's Minister of Defense Vladimir Padrino and members of the military high command inspecting a Russian-made Buk M2E missile system during a training exercise in Caracas on Nov. 11, 2025. Photo: Venezuela Defense Ministry.
Caracas (OrinocoTribune.com)—On Tuesday, Venezuelan Minister of Defense Vladimir Padrino stated that US military personnel deployed in the Caribbean are being used as “mercenaries” to commit murders around the world. He made the statement during a briefing on the launch of a new defensive military drill amid an escalation of US military buildup following the arrival of the USS Gerald Ford aircraft carrier to the Caribbean.
“I see that the US armed forces are being used as mercenaries to assassinate, as their main spokespeople have said: ‘We are going to deploy around the world to assassinate, to kill.’ That is what is happening in the Caribbean, murdering defenseless people, whether or not they are drug traffickers,” the minister stated during a review of the Plan Independence 200 military drill.
An international analyst consulted by Orinoco Tribune expressed his opinion that General Padrino’s words aim to encourage US military personnel to question the manner in which they are being exploited by their superiors and utilized to carry out illegal actions such as extrajudicial killings of innocent civilians. This coincides with the recent statement by UN rapporteurs clarifying that “Officers should refuse superior orders where these are a manifest violation of the law and may result in a serious violation of human rights, including extrajudicial executions.”
General Padrino also suggested that there is confusion and disagreement within the US Armed Forces regarding the strikes in Caribbean and Pacific waters. He was responding to a journalist’s question on whether the early retirement of the head of the US Southern Command, Admiral Alvin Holsey, is evidence of US internal frictions.
“I am sure that within the US armed forces, there is great disagreement, there are great contradictions to a reality completely different from the nature with which they were created,” General Padrino said, adding that unity among the Venezuelan military is stronger than ever.
The comments came as the Bolivarian National Armed Force (FANB) initiated the advanced phase of its Independence 200 defensive military drill on Monday. The exercise is aimed at optimizing command, control, and communications for both armed and non-armed forms of struggle.
In a statement, the FANB announced that “this new dimension of full operational readiness involves the massive deployment of land, air, naval, riverine and missile resources, weapons systems, military units, Bolivarian militia, citizen security agencies, and the Commands for Comprehensive Defense.”
The drill began at 4 a.m. on Tuesday, November 11, and will extend until Wednesday, November 12. It involves 200,000 military personnel, with the goal of optimizing full military preparedness amid unprecedented US military threats.
President Maduro Calls on CELAC Summit to Condemn Militarization of Caribbean
“This is an improvement, because we are constantly optimizing,” noted General Padrino. “We have conducted field drills… staff drills, coastal defense drills, resource decentralization drills, and disaster management drills. We have carried out these defensive drills, and there are more to come.”
He emphasized that every national institution works to preserve peace but is also ready to defend the country. “The National Armed Force, on the one hand, the people on the other, the Bolivarian Militia, the citizen security agencies, the police… the entire state system to confront a potential attack by US imperialism should the moment arrive,” he added.
Special for Orinoco Tribune by staff
OT/JRE/SL
