U.S. Military Presence near Venezuela Raises Concerns

[Say_What]

<clips>

U.S. Military Presence near Venezuela Raises Concerns

Caracas, Venezuela. Mar 1 (Venezuelanalysis.com).- Venezuela’s Armed Forces are closely watching the unannounced presence of U.S. military vessels near the Caribbean island of Curacao, which was detected early Monday.

The announcement was made early Monday by Venezuelan Navy commander Armando Laguna, during an interview with state TV channel Venezolana de Television. Laguna said that the Venezuelan Navy detected several foreign vessels 75 kilometers northeast of the Paraguaná Peninsula in western Venezuela.

According to Laguna, the presence of U.S. military ships near Venezuela is part of their "routine maneuvers", and told people not to be alarmed. However, Laguna assured that the United States did not announce the presence "as they traditionally have been doing it."

"The situation is within normal and legal parameters. However, these operations were not notified to our government. We detected them and took our precautions to determine their intentions, but they are always performing maneuvers {exercises} in the Minor Antilles," he said.

http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/news.php?newsno=1528


The image of a U.S. military ship anchored off the coast of Curacao was captured by an amateur photographer and widely distributed by Venezuelan alternative news media.
Credit: Jean - Aporrea.org

[toddzilla]

1. careful hugo, don't want to practice too much democracy ..

[woosh]

7. you just made the list.

[Toots]

2. The assassins base camp has arrived.

Chavez is living on borrowed time. The US or should I say Bush* Cabal is a vindictive foe.

[bemildred]

3. "Defiant radical extremist Bush rattles sabres in Latin America"

just practicing writing my own headlines.

[leveymg]

4. Photo is of an amphibious assault ship - basically a floating Marine Corps

air field and landing craft launching platform. Carries enough helicopters and boats to insert 1600-1800 or so soldiers at a time.

Would need a whole bunch of those to invade Venzuela - no need to worry about a one or two ship invasion. Nonetheless, could be useful for landing special forces teams in coastal areas or near off-shore oil facilities.

Has a certain presence, doesn't it?

[clem_c_rock]

5. Lot's of oil and democracy in those parts

Yee haw.

Time to move on in boys.

[lebkuchen]

6. Please, Hugo, no milk programs for mothers

like Allende had.