The president of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, announced on Tuesday the start of a "special offensive" to strengthen security throughout the country, a plan that, he said, seeks to integrate civilian, military, and police forces, reports EFE.
"Today marks the start of a special offensive to launch this line that will strengthen internal security in all 24 states of the country, especially in the capital Caracas," Maduro stated in an event broadcast by the state channel Venezolana de Televisión (VTV), without delving into details about the deployment.
For the president, strengthening security involves "the concrete popular-military fusion on the ground".
"With permanent action plans, focusing on life, community, but specifically on issues of tranquility, peace, and the fight against crime in all its forms," he added.
During his speech, Maduro referred to this plan as a "new stage" of work in which "two strengths" will come together, those of the communal circuits (units of popular organization) and the "police-military power", represented by the so-called "peace quadrants".
In 2018, Maduro announced the creation of the "Great Mission Peace Quadrants", with the aim of ensuring citizen security in the country.
The 'peace quadrants', according to official reports, are organizations made up of police forces and community leaders to design work methodologies against crime in areas spanning two to five kilometers.
Last Thursday, the U.S. Attorney General, Pam Bondi, shared a video on social media announcing a $50 million reward for information leading to the capture of Maduro, whom she identified as a threat to U.S. security.
Bondi accused the Venezuelan leader of using "foreign terrorist organizations such as Sinaloa and the Cartel of the Suns to introduce lethal drugs and violence" into the U.S., an assertion that has been rejected by numerous institutions, as well as Venezuelan police and military bodies.
On Tuesday, the Venezuelan Foreign Minister, Yván Gil, warned of what he considered a "serious military threat" from the U.S., a country that, he said, "shelters under the alleged right" to combat drug trafficking to "turn" Latin America into a "new scenario of colonial war".
Through a post on Telegram, in which he informed about a meeting with the accredited diplomatic corps in Venezuela, Gil made an "urgent call" to the international community to "repudiate these terrorist acts" instigated - he pointed out - by the U.S. government and "its fascist allies from the Venezuelan right".