VENEZUELAN President Nicolas Maduro is reportedly pleading for help from Vladimir Putin after it emerged Donald Trump could strike at any moment.
US forces are said to be preparing to bomb military installations inside Venezuela, with the aim air strikes will arrive in “a matter of days or even hours,” according to reports.
Trump has already brought U.S. naval and air assets closer to Venezuelan shores, stoking fears of all-out war.
Now, a panicked President Maduro is trying to turn to his tyrannical friends for support to defend himself against an imminent attack.
Maduro has approached Moscow directly begging it to send any weapons to improve the South American nation’s military capabilities.
Venezuela is requesting defensive radars, aircraft repairs and potentially missiles, according to internal US government documents obtained by The Washington Post.
‘FALSE FLAG’
Venezuela claims to have captured CIA spies trying to provoke a US invasion
AMERICAN STEEL
Trump’s missile-laden destroyer arrives just MILES from Venezuela
It is also believed that Maduro approached China and Iran for help.
Speculation continues to grow about whether Trump will escalate his war against Maduro and the drug cartels, from attacks on smuggling ships to deadly ground attacks.
Despite the concerns, the US president denied any reports that he planned to attack imminently on Friday.
It comes amid reports claiming the US could unleash airstrikes within “days or even hours”, sources with knowledge of the situation say.
They told him The Miami Herald any strike aim military air bases and ports used by the Cartel of the Suns, a drug trafficking organization that the United States says is encouraged by Maduro.
US troops will seek to destroy cartel networks and eliminate their top leaders.
When Trump was asked if the reports aboard Air Force One were accurate, he simply said, “No.”
Trump has history when it comes to downplaying your true intentions.
In June, he denied claims that he would attack Iranian uranium sites during his brief conflict with Israel.
Shortly after his denial, the United States unleashed a large number of bunker-buster bombs that wiped out Iran’s secret hideouts.
Tensions continue to flare between Washington and Caracas and relations are now reaching their most dangerous point in years.
Trump escalated the fight beyond rhetoric, declaring the United States in a “non-international armed conflict” with cartel groups and cutting off any diplomatic contact with the country.
He sent the world’s largest warship to join his anti-drug force in the Caribbean.
The latter movement saw the modern Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group joins the Americans steel ring currently stationed near Venezuelan waters.
So far, the US military has carried out at least 13 deadly attacks against suspected drug trafficking vessels that have killed about 57 people from Venezuela. Colombia and Ecuadoraccording to US officials.
Trump’s deadly attacks off the coast of Venezuela have targeted what he says is a hotbed of drug traffickers heading to American shores.
He says the campaign aims to “save lives,” calling Maduro’s Venezuela the “worst abuser” of open borders and a drug pipeline.
The US president insists that the US military can attack criminal organizations without inciting war with the South American nation.
The Pentagon said the carrier group will join a southern command center to “bolster the United States’ ability to detect, monitor, and disrupt illicit actors and activities that compromise the security and prosperity of the U.S. homeland.”
The Ford aircraft carrier, commissioned in 2017, is capable of carrying up to 90 aircraft and housing more than 5,000 sailors, making it the largest in the world.
Deadly aircraft permanently assigned to the ship include the 18E Super Hornet, 18G Growler, 2D Advanced Hawkeye, and 2A Greyhound, along with Seahawks.
Meanwhile, stealthy F-35s, B-52 bombers, Reaper drones, eight warships and even a nuclear-powered submarine lurk off Maduro’s coast.
Some 10,000 CIA troops, military helicopters and intelligence assets are also keeping a close eye on Venezuela, and Pentagon planners are said to be preparing contingencies to seize ports and airfields if ordered.
This week, Trump also sent America’s deadliest fighter jets to Venezuela’s doorstep.
Two B-1B Lancer bombers, each capable of delivering 75,000 pounds of artillery, flew from Texas on Thursday, approaching Venezuelan airspace in a thunderous show of force.
Meanwhile, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro has stoked tensions by claiming that his country has 5,000 Russian-made anti-aircraft missiles in “key air defense positions.”
Inside Caracas, intelligence reports suggest Hezbollah militants, Colombian guerrillas and Cuban special forces They are integrated into Maduro’s security apparatus, a sign, analysts say, that the embattled dictator is preparing for a siege.
“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 in an event broadcast on Wednesday, according to cnn.
Maduro said that the weapons had been deployed “even in the last mountain, in the last town and in the last city of the territory.”
The Venezuelan president has repeatedly claimed that the United States is trying to oust him from power, while Trump has accused the country of harboring criminals.
INCREASE IN PROFITS
Explains the exact amount your benefit payments will increase and how it will affect YOU
OUR GIRL IN THE
Inside Michelle Keegan’s plans for Hollywood… and why Mark’s sweet promise is key
Washington has offered a reward of $50 million to anyone who can provide information leading to Maduro’s arrest. Reuters reported.
Adding to the growing tension is the fact that Trump accuses Colombian President Gustavo Petro of being an “illegal drugs leader.”
