FEATURE | Amid US invasion threat, Venezuela plans "guerilla-style" defence

He added that the portable missiles and their operators had been deployed "to the last mountain, the last town, and the last city in the territory." More than a dozen military training and planning documents dated between 2012 and 2022 and seen by Reuters show a long-term focus on planning for a fight against "imperialist aggressions."

One, from September 2019, details how platoons should position machine guns, grenade launchers and other equipment. It explains the characteristics of a AK-103 assault rifle and how lone combatants can use a compass, the sun and even the stars to orient themselves if they are on the move.

Venezuelan opposition groups, NGOs, Washington and some Latin American governments have accused Maduro’s administration and the Venezuelan military of ties to drug trafficking, especially in the country’s west, where Colombian guerrilla groups like the National Liberation Army operate and coca, the base ingredient in cocaine, is widely cultivated.

The government has consistently denied such links and says it combats Colombian drug traffickers.

But Maduro may be trying to send a message about the risks of invasion through his appearances on state television, where he regularly shows off military equipment, said Andrei Serbin Pont, a defence and security analyst.

"The underlying message isn’t actual military capability but deterrence through chaos: the threat that this equipment could end up in the hands of armed groups, guerrillas, paramilitaries, or reorganized ex-military personnel, worsening violence and instability during a potential transition," Serbin said.

(Editing by Julia Symmes Cobb and Rosalba O'Brien)