Caracas, Jan 3 (UNI) Venezuela’s Defence Minister General Vladimir Padrino López confirmed that the country is deploying all its military capabilities, and enacting all comprehensive defence systems, following the US missile attacks, which targeted Caracas and several nearby states.
Issuing the first official report following US strikes on multiple locations across the country, he condemned the attacks and called them a case of pure “criminal military aggression” and confirmed that the Bolivarian National Armed Forces (FANB) would activate all available resources to defend national territory and citizens.
He said that US missiles struck targets in Fuerte Tiuna in Caracas as well as in the nearby states of Miranda, Aragua and La Guaira, causing damage to residential housing complexes while bombing Venezuelan infrastructure. Authorities are still assessing damage and potential civilian casualties.
Acting on the instructions of President Nicolás Maduro, the FANB has begun a comprehensive nationwide defensive deployment.
“Faced with this vile and cowardly attack, which threatens peace and stability in the region, we issue our strongest denunciation before the international community and all multilateral organisations,” Padrino López said.
Accusing the US government of a flagrant violation of the UN Charter and international law, López also rejected any foreign military presence on Venezuelan soil, warning that any invasion would be an “outrage” driven not by counter-narcotics concerns but by “insatiable greed for our strategic resources” and an attempt to impose regime change.
Citing constitutional provisions as well as the Organic Law on States of Exception and the Organic Law of National Security, the government has declared a state of external commotion – virtually a state of national emergency.
Under this framework, the FANB is mobilising all operational components — land, air, naval, riverine and missile units — in what the minister described as a “perfect popular–military–police fusion” designed to form a unified national defence force.
Invoking Venezuela’s independence-era heroes, he stressed that “dignity is non-negotiable and the homeland is a supreme value,” and urged citizens to remain calm and united as comprehensive defence measures are enacted nationwide, adding that “steadfastness is the shield of the homeland” in the face of what he described as external aggression.
