Venezuela is reported to be distributing legacy Soviet- and Russian-made small arms to elements of the armed forces and to civilian structures as it rehearses a shift to irregular defence.
Recent images and agency reports have shown weapons handling drills for civilians alongside militia mobilisation, reflecting a doctrine of territorial resistance amid heightened tensions with the United States.
Officials have spoken of “prolonged resistance” concepts and dispersed “battlefront” deployments across the country, while acknowledging the constraints on conventional capability. The emphasis has been on training, local defence cells and rapid mobilisation of party-aligned and reserve structures under the Bolivarian Militia framework.
The reported distribution includes ageing AK-series rifles and other surplus small arms. Venezuela also holds a sizeable stock of Russian Igla-S man-portable air defence systems (MANPADS); military documents reviewed in 2017 indicated an inventory of about 5,000 units, the largest known cache in Latin America. The current serviceability of these systems depends on storage, maintenance and operator training standards.
Arming civilians and auxiliary units on this scale raises command, control and accountability issues. International research on MANPADS highlights risks to civil aviation when such systems proliferate beyond tightly controlled inventories, underscoring the importance of serial tracking, custody procedures and rules of engagement.
The defence posture follows a period in which Caracas has expanded and publicised its militia forces. Official statements in recent years have claimed membership in the millions, though independent estimates vary and questions remain over training and equipment levels. The current cycle of drills has featured public handovers of weapons and field instruction by regular forces.
Washington’s stance is a central factor in Caracas’s planning. During his previous term, Donald Trump stated that a “military option” for Venezuela was not excluded; subsequent U.S. and international reporting has described covert and overt pressure on the Maduro government, alongside denials of imminent large-scale operations by U.S. defence officials at the time.
In the present environment, Venezuelan authorities have announced legal and operational measures linked to the prospect of a U.S. incursion and have publicised deployments to hundreds of designated security zones nationwide. The narrative from Caracas combines assertions of readiness with emphasis on dispersal and urban disruption as deterrents.
From an operational perspective, a guerrilla-centred strategy requires secure communications, logistics for ammunition and medical support, and reliable local intelligence networks. These demands are intensive in degraded economic conditions. The risk of diversion of small arms and light weapons in such settings is documented across fragile contexts, with implications for public security and demobilisation efforts.
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