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As ten­sions be­tween Venezuela and the U.S. soar, on Wednes­day night, Venezuela’s De­fence Min­is­ter, Gen­er­al Vladimir Padri­no López an­nounced that Venezuela’s army along with the mili­tias have be­gun “Sov­er­eign Caribbean” mil­i­tary ex­er­cis­es.

On Sun­day, López warned T&T and Guyana that there would be a strong re­sponse if both coun­tries al­low the U.S. to use any of them as a base.

The three-day mil­i­tary ex­er­cis­es are tak­ing place on the Venezue­lan is­land of La Or­chi­la which is al­so used as a mil­i­tary base, sit­u­at­ed north of Cara­cas.