Venezuela launches military exercise over British warship ‘threat’

CARACAS: Venezuela´s President Nicolas Maduro on Thursday ordered more than 5,600 military personnel to participate in a “defensive” exercise, in response to Britain sending a warship to waters off Guyana.

Maduro said he was launching “a joint action of a defensive nature in response to the provocation and threat of the United Kingdom against peace and the sovereignty of our country.”

Britain said Sunday it would divert the patrol vessel HMS Trent to Guyana, a former British colony, amid the South American country´s simmering territorial dispute with neighbouring Venezuela over the oil-rich Essequibo region.

A Guyana foreign ministry source, speaking on condition of anonymity, told AFP that the ship was due to arrive Friday and would be in its territory for “less than a week” for open sea defense exercises. The ship will not dock in Georgetown.

The television broadcast accompanying Maduro´s announcement showed fighter jets participating in the Venezuelan exercise, as well as ships and ocean patrol vessels.

The Venezuelan government earlier asked Guyana, in a statement, “to take immediate action for the withdrawal of the HMS Trent, and to refrain from involving military powers in the territorial controversy.”