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THE war of words between the governments of the United States and Venezuela is rapidly escalating into strong hints at military confrontation by both sides.

Latest reports from Reuters is that the US military's intended deployment of 4,500 soldiers, sailors and marines in the South Caribbean is actually intended to be off the coast of Venezuela, whose leader Nicolas Maduro has in turn vowed to meet this threat with a counter-deployment of exactly the same number of Venezuelan militiamen.

This is happening after the US doubled the bounty on Maduro's head, which went from US$15 million in 2020 to US$25 million in January to US$50 million on August 7.