LONDON, November 22. /TASS/. Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has tightened personal security measures amid an increased US military presence in the Caribbean Sea, the Financial Times reported, citing sources.
According to them, Maduro’s public appearances in recent weeks have been held on a reduced and unannounced schedule. Senior officials and military leaders, who previously always accompanied the president, are now absent to avoid a collective threat to government officials.
Maduro’s personal security detail, the sources said, is increasingly relying on Cuban professionals, as the government worries about declining loyalty among Venezuelan security forces amid the country’s economic crisis and high inflation.
"Maduro is deploying the classic security protocols for when a person is being threatened," Jose Garcia, a Venezuelan military expert who has monitored Maduro’s security procedures, told the newspaper.
The report notes that Maduro, having endured maximum pressure from US sanctions during Donald Trump’s first presidential term, considers the presence of American warships in the Caribbean Sea to be a harbinger of regime change.
Maduro has repeatedly warned that his country faces the gravest threat of a US invasion in the past century. Washington, in turn, accuses Venezuela of failing to combat drug smuggling effectively. So far, the US Navy has deployed eight ships, a nuclear submarine, and more than 16,000 troops to the Caribbean. Since September, it has destroyed at least 20 speedboats and 76 individuals in international waters allegedly involved in drug trafficking from Venezuela. On November 16, the Pentagon announced that a strike group led by the aircraft carrier Gerald R. Ford had entered the Caribbean Sea.