The Minister of Defense of Venezuela, Vladimir Padrino López, assured this Sunday that the country has improved the operational autonomy of the integrated surveillance system and airspace control, amid tensions with the United States, which maintains a military operation in the Caribbean under the argument of combating drug trafficking.
“The Bolivarian National Armed Forces (FANB) consider it one of its greatest triumphs that it has achieved an admirable level of technological independence and empowerment even in the midst of a criminal economic blockade, coercive sanctions and the most grotesque escalation of war by the United States,” Padrino López said in a statement posted on Instagram.
The officer said it was anything but intimidatingThese “hostile circumstances” have strengthened operational autonomy and the creation of its own resources that “strengthen the national defense force.”
“With its modern radars, missile systems, anti-aircraft artillery and the use of aircraft in close coordination with Bolivarian military aviation, the CODAI (Comprehensive Aerospace Defense Command) has become a vanguard in the comprehensive defense of the nation,” he added.
On Friday, the Venezuelan defense minister condemned an attempt at intimidation by the United States with the overflight of F-18 fighter jetswhich entered the Gulf of Venezuela area last Tuesday, as shown by the flight tracking service Flightradar24.
Padrino López said during an event marking the 47th anniversary of CODAI, broadcast by state broadcaster Venezolana de Televisión (VTV): that this action will not break the FANB or the Venezuelan people.
“We have the ability to respond and defend our airspace, we don’t make a mistake and we don’t continue with your game of psychological operations. We don’t buy it at all, not at all,” he reiterated at the time.
On Tuesday, two American F-18 fighter jets flew inland, the flight tracking service Flightradar24 showed. in the airspace over the waters of the Gulf of Venezuela for approximately 40 minutes.
The two aircraft, identified as two-seat F-variant F-18s, made several corkscrew-shaped circles before flying north to a point about 30 miles (50 kilometers) west of Aruba, where the aircraft carrier USS Gerald Ford, the largest and most modern in the United States, is believed to be located.
The Pentagon dispatched the ship several weeks ago, joining a huge contingent that Washington has had in the Caribbean since late August and marking its largest deployment to the region in decades, arguing that it was fighting drug trafficking but that Caracas sees as a threat to spur government change.
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