Overview

• President Nicolás Maduro said military units will enter communities on Saturday to instruct volunteers in handling firearms, describing it as the first time barracks-level training moves directly into neighborhoods.
• Venezuela’s forces conducted a second day of exercises around La Orchila, deploying 12 naval vessels, about 20 smaller boats, 22 aircraft and roughly 2,300 troops, with operations set to run for three days.
• The National Assembly unanimously approved a Treaty of Strategic Partnership and Cooperation with Russia, formalizing plans to expand political and economic ties as tensions with Washington escalate.
• The U.S. maintains its operations target drug trafficking, asserting three boats carrying narcotics were destroyed this month with 14 deaths reported, while DHS separately touted Pacific Viper seizures of 34 tonnes of cocaine and 59 arrests since August.
• China, Cuba, Russia and Iran voiced support for Venezuela and criticized U.S. actions as destabilizing, legal analysts questioned the lawfulness of lethal strikes on small craft, and Caracas alleged a hostile U.S. Navy interaction with a Venezuelan fishing boat in its exclusive economic zone.