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if we're talking about new sounds there
is one style that stands out lately
above all others and no I'm not
referring to Ariana Grande's latest hit
but to the drums of war the offensive in
the Gaza Strip the exhausting conflict
in Ukraine the multiple African Civil
Wars here and there the skirmishes of
the houthis in the Red Sea and also the
belligerent winds that have suddenly and
unexpectedly been blowing up in the
middle of the Caribbean Sea us Southern
command begins military exercises in
Guyana amid tensions with Venezuela
Maduro orders joint defensive action in
response to British warship sent to
Guyana despite Promises of
non-aggression Maduro threatened Guyana
again over the sa Keo claim in December
2023 the British Navy Patrol vessel HMS
Trent arrived in the Caribbean Sea to
carry out tasks related to the fight
against smuggling and human trafficking
it replaces its sistership HMS Medway
which will be undergoing a period of
Maintenance at the jibral shipyard
however at the end of the month the HMS
Trent was diverted with the aim of
Crossing guyana's Waters in the
framework of its patrols which set off
the anger of Caracas as you know the
bolivarian revolution is in full
nationalist Crusade with Georgetown over
the territorial disputes that Guyana and
Venezuela uphold over the esoko
something we have already told you about
recently here on visual politic Chavez's
response well a deployment that involved
nearly 5,000 military troops as well as
dozens of military vessels and aircraft
in the Eastern Venezuelan
Caribbean despite the fact that HMS
Trent has already left the Undisputed
Waters the exercises and constant
warmongering threats are starting to
make a lot of noise and although a
conflict seems compl completely
implausible to us today although given
what we've seen lately who knows this
has made us un visual politic ask
ourselves a few questions how strong is
Venezuela's military capacity could the
bolivarian Armed Forces really sustain
an invasion and war effort how much
spark is there really in the armed wing
of the bolivarian Revolution and what
role would the huge purchases of Russian
and Chinese arms that the chavista
regime has made over the last two
decades play well visual politic
Community we are about to see all this
and more fire up your and let's get
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started it may surprise you but the
truth is that Venezuela's military
capability has always been a Hot Topic
in the Americas for various reasons look
at what was said as far back as the
1950s Venezuela is dependent upon
foreign sources for virtually all its
military although a prefer exists for us
equipment particularly of the heavier
varieties Venezuelan military leaders
are irritated because the US does not
sell them latest models of the best
equipment so when Washington wanted to
prevent Soviet infiltration in the
region from the 1960s onwards to avoid
another Cuban style Revolution Venezuela
became the Golden Boy of the latam team
for decades firstly because it was a
democracy secondly because it was a
relatively rich country in relation to
its neighbors and thirdly because
because it was an important energy
partner so in a way the United States
thought it could make Venezuela a
spearhead against Soviet influence in
the Caribbean Sea for instance during
the Cuban Missile Crisis two Venezuelan
destroyers the arv noeva esparta and the
arv zulia participated in the blockade
of the island of
Cuba in This Way Washington gradually
contributed to the modernization of
Venezuela's Armed Forces for example by
allowing them to acquire 24 F-16 fighter
jets back in 1983 at the time one of
them was the most modern on the market
yes four decades ago Venezuela already
had access to the same type of aircraft
that is now being sent to Ukraine at
that time Venezuela also acquired Lupo
class frigs which in their day were at
the Forefront of Firepower on the high
seas these are but two examples oil
money combined with good relations with
the West were allowing Venezuela to
gradually de velop reasonably modern and
functional small Armed Forces for what
purpose well to control the Caribbean
and also neighboring
Colombia for example on the 9th of
August 1987 there was an incident that
almost got out of hand a Colombian
Corvette The Arc Cass entered Venezuelan
Waters claimed by
Colombia
the refusal of the Colombian ship
culminated with the brand new f-16s
ready to attack according to Venezuela's
ultimatum which Batar eventually
accepted of course this whole Venezuelan
gamble changed completely with the
arrival of Hugo Chavez to power in 1998
that is when the new bolivarian military
began to be put into action listen
up a colorful
modernization visual politic Community
although in his speeches he sometimes
became an eccentric character Hugo
Raphael Chavez Frias was above all a
military
man in 2008 Chavez promoted oted a
reform of the military regulations in
order to be an active member of the
Armed Forces under his constitutional
condition of Commander in Chief which
for example enabled him to use his
campaign uniform in official acts the
link between the commander and the Armed
Forces was intense and in 2004 the
modernization of the Armed Forces became
a priority for his government and so in
2005 chavismo launched a strategic line
known as strengthening of the military
power this consisted of an ambitious
military rearmament
plan of course some things were already
changing Bush bans arm sales to Chavez
Janelle hironimus a state department
spokeswoman said Venezuela had forged
close relations with Iran and Cuba both
classified by the United States as state
sponsors of terrorism this measure taken
by the White House was a hard blow for
the Venezuelan Armed Forces which as
we've already told you in terms of
equipment military supplies defense
doctrines and management and maintenance
capabilities were built around Western
military equipment not surprisingly the
commander saw an opportunity the perfect
moment to put an end to precisely that
Western tie so what he did was to pull
out his checkbook to sign million arms
contracts with his two new preferred
Partners Russia and
China as you can see in this graph
Venezuela's military modernization
occurred in two waves one between 2006
and 2009 and the other between 2011 and
2013 overall arms Imports were
disproportionately larger than in
previous years and mainly relied on
orders from Russia and China therefore
although Caracas maintained orders to
the military industry of countries such
as Holland Austria and Spain for the
supply of light surveillance aircraft or
Maritime Patrol vessels the bulk of the
relationship had to do with its new
partners with China for example
multi-million dollar contracts were
signed for the purchase of uniforms
vests training aircraft artillery
ammunition anti-submarine helicopters
and anti-riot vehicles as is the case
with the norinko vn4 and norinko abv1
for its part Moscow by far Venezuela's
largest supplier received orders to
supply missile systems anti-aircraft
defenses combat helicopters and more
than 100 modernized t72
tanks yet the favorite toy of the
Venezuelan military in this period was
undoubtedly the SEO s30 MK2 the new
guardian of the Skies of the
Revolution you see the F-16 undoubtedly
has many advantages but with 20 years
behind it and above all without us
assist for maintenance and upgrades it
was almost impossible to continue to
count on them so the Venezuelan
government made sure to receive 24 of
these Russian Plains and in this way
during the first decade of the 21st
century Venezuela managed to take an
important step forward in military
matters it must be said Chavez managed
to maintain the comparative advantage
that Caracas had with its neighbors
which coincidentally LED Washington to
consider that it would be advisable to
close that Gap Russia has become the
Primary Weapons exporter for the shave
Administration among recent purchases
are Russian air defense systems
helicopters and soya's 30 jet fighters
Venezuela turns to Russia for
geostrategic balance and sometimes
pragmatic necessity in the wake of the
2006 us arms embargo if Venezuela
continues to pursue weapons contracts
with Russia it is conceivable the US may
increase its military aid to Colombia in
order to preserve Colombia's military
Advantage Colombia is at a strategic
disadvantage before the most
representative air superiority Fleet in
the region with the Russian sue3 MK2 or
suco fighter bombers owned by Venezuela
and so the bolivarian Revolution was
quite well armed but then Along Came the
crisis and purchases were stopped in
their tracks as mle would say the money
ran out of course the toys that had been
bought were available and the revolution
did not take long to get its hands on
them be aware that this may come as a
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surprise Columbia the Eternal
scapegoat Colombia and Venezuela are
brother countries they fought together
in the war of independence and were also
once a single country L Grand Colombia
between 1819 and 1831 despite this over
the years they have had all kinds of
tugs of War as we've already seen in
the80s karakas and bogatar were on the
verge of ending up at War it was
essentially a territorial conflict in
recent years however things have become
even more complicated you see in 2008
the Colombian government under the
leadership of Alvaro urb and with Juan
Manuel Santos as Minister of Defense
ordered operation Phoenix this operation
consisted of a military attack on a farc
base located in Ecuadorian territory
this led the Republic of Ecuador headed
at that time by Raphael Korea to
denounce the maneuver as an authentic
military aggression against its country
this triggered a crisis that quickly
escalated to a regional scale especially
when Hugo Chavez entered the
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pitcher
the issue is that the Colombian
government was announcing the presence
of the farc in Venezuelan territory and
its links with certain Venezuelan
military sectors to kraus' anger
Colombian president Alvaro urb signed an
agreement with President Barack Obama to
concretize the use of seven joint
military bases to fight drug trafficking
and Terror ISM something that chz saw as
a kind of
threat and take note because AR himself
has ackowledge that attacks on
Venezuelan territory were a very real
possibility
of course things did not escalate little
by little the issue calmed down the
question will always remain as to
whether Hugo Chavez really would have
been willing to use his new Russian
Chinese Arsenal in an open war against
Colombia whatever the case the
Venezuelan military mobilization between
2008 and 2010 was useful for its Armed
Forces to prepare themselves let's just
say that flight practices battle drills
firing drills and all kinds of Maneuvers
were accelerated with the new equipment
purchased from the Russians and Chinese
in other words Chavez used the war
hypothesis to accelerate the preparation
of the Venezuelan armed forces and
although these capabilities have not yet
been tested it seems sensible to assume
that the purchase of new Weaponry
improved Venezuela's military
capabilities despite the disaster that
is the revolution but are they really
prepared for a possible Invasion by
Guyana well pay
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attention barking dog with not much
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bite according to the Global Firepower
ranking Venezuela ranks 52nd in terms of
Firepower the Venezuelan armed forces
have 130,000 troops and 250 aircraft 44
of which are attack aircraft and 46
warships they are not particularly large
Armed Forces but would they be enough to
take over the esoko keep in mind that
since the bolivarian revolution began
almost a quarter of a century has passed
more than 20 years of Corrupt Practices
cronyism and all kinds of connections to
top it all off the crisis of the last
few years has caused military spending
to plummet which of course has
consequences in terms of Maintenance
training and operability take a look at
how military spending has peted since
2014 Venezuela's tooy fight jets would
have fewer than average flight hours
experts to this situation we must add
the fact that a large part of the
Russian equipment that today forms the
military heart of Venezuela have shown
significant operational deficiencies in
the Ukrainian front so there are many
doubts about their real Combat
capability as if that were not enough in
recent years the Venezuelan military has
taken on many civilian tasks especially
those related to the operation of public
Enterprises and oil businesses that is
to say they have been gradually
transforming their priorities to the
point that the role of the technical
officer that is the effective
professional military officer focused on
tactical levels is almost extinct and
that is not
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all more importantly since Venezuela's
modernization its neighbors Colombia and
above all Brazil have made great strides
in terms of their military capabilities
and let's not forget that Brazil has
already said it would come to guyana's
support in other words theoretically the
Venezuelan Armed Forces has the capacity
on paper to invade Guyana and recover
the esoko after all the 130,000 military
troops that Caracas has are equivalent
to 16% of the entire population of
Guyana but in reality visual politic
viewers a lot has happened since the
golden days of bolivarian military
capability Guyana most probably would
receive military assistance from Brazil
and the United States and no matter how
small the competitor is these days
Venezuela does not seem to be a player
capable of resisting in other words we
may be wrong but we do not believe that
such an invasion is feasible today most
likely the Venezuelan military would
dissolve like a sugar cube be that as it
may let's hope we don't have to find out
having said that the questions are what
do you think of Venezuela's military
capabilities do you think they are still
up to the task how do you think this
country would perform in the event of a
conflict as always leave us your
impressions in the comments and if you
found this video interesting don't
forget to hit the like button thank you
very much for being there all the best
see next
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time