ARMED to the teeth with missiles and sniper rifles, US forces standing by to take down Venezuela dictator Maduro could face deadly guerrilla-style ambushes.
The Venezuelan leader has vowed to respond after Donald Trump was given the green light for US forces in the Caribbean to unleash air and ground operations against the country.
Maduro has entrenched himself in a bunker dug into a hillside facing the sprawling Fort Tiuna army base in the capital Caracas.
And he is protected by a “regiment” of Cuban special forces called Black Wasps, according to US intelligence reports.
His chief henchman Diosdado Cabello says he is devising a strategy of “active prolonged resistance”.
At a meeting of army officers and militia leaders, Cabello said: “They plan to come in and out of here quick and easy, but we will pin them down for a hundred years.”
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He seems intent on making the US pay a high price for any incursion – even at the cost of turning Venezuelan into another Gaza or Iraq.
Former US national security council staffer Luis Quinones says US forces need to establish dominance over the situation within 48 hours – or it could spiral out of control.
The Trump administration has been hoping that its deployment of missile carrying destroyers and a nuke submarine off Venezuela’s coast might be enough to convince Maduro’s generals to stage a coup and hand him over for the $50million reward on his head.
It comes as US warships have been hunting down Venezuelan speed boats running drugs to the US.
And F-35 stealth aircraft have been flying from a base in Puerto Rico to probe and map out Venezuela’s air defences.
Ex-general Marco Ferreira, who held high-level government posts before going into exile, predicts that Venezuela troops will “empty out of the barracks” the moment Tomahawk missiles hit.
He told The Sun that the Venezuelan regime has “sicarios” or assassins assigned to military garrisons throughout the country – with orders to shoot commanders on any sign of disloyalty.
In the event of a war, Cabello’s “permanent resistance force” has unlimited supplies of rifles, missiles and other weapons stashed in locations hidden from US air and satellite surveillance – and they could wreak havoc.
Venezuela’s Russian-supplied weapons also includes half a dozen mobile S-300 SAM batteries, shorter range Buk missiles, two squadrons of Su-30 jet fighters, about 100 T-72 tanks and a few serviceable Mi-35 attack helicopters.
These would largely be wiped out by US precision strikes in the first eight hours of an attack, according to Pentagon projections.
But Maduro has claimed he can mobilise a four-million strong “peoples’ militia”.
The gun toting Dad’s Army may be a screen for at least 5,000 hardcore Maduro supporters of the paramilitary “Colectivos” – who make up an urban guerrilla network in cities and towns throughout Venezuela, and don’t pose for cameras.
They draw recruits from prison gangs like Tren de Aragua, who have operated as goon squads for the regime, raiding opponents’ homes, conducting extra official arrests and dispersing opposition rallies with drive-by shootings.
They are also linked with thousands of Hezbollah militants in Venezuela.
Speaking to The Sun, former Venezuelan spy chief General Cristopher Figueres revealed that there are about 1,000 Hezbollah members on Margarita Island.
It is a centre of Islamic activism and money laundering operating behind façades of a tourist resort, he said.
Youngsters celebrated the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington by sporting Bin Laden tattoos.
Another 400 Hezbollah militants are located near the Maracay army base outside Caracas.
And some 200 are in the port city of Valencia working security for drug smugglers.
Figueres recalls issuing hundreds of Venezuelan ID documents and passports to new arrivals from the Middle East who couldn’t speak Spanish.
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DONALD Trump has launched his full-scale war on drugs – favouring missiles over law enforcement.
The first day of Trump’s second term kicked off with the designation of narcotraffickers as terrorists – giving him the right to kill them before they can reach American shores.
This is the argument he has used in the face of law experts warning that his decision to strike a suspected drug-smuggling boat on Tuesday was illegal.
Washington-watchers claim that the gangsters should have been arrested – but the White House says that law enforcement is ineffective.
Trump vowed after the blitz: “There’s more where that came from.”
The US President has long spoken of his desire to enact force to take on drug cartels, which he accuses Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro of actively backing.
Maduro has denied the allegations, and the last few months have seen teetering escalations deteriorate into a tense standoff.
The US has positioned naval destroyers and soldiers around Maduro’s waters, while the Venezuelan dictator has ordered mass mobilisation of troops.
Colectivos and Hezbollah share paramilitary training and violent Marxist and Islamic ideologies at certain community centres.
This includes a gym in the centre of Caracas – where a curved Islamic sword hangs over the Venezuelan flag at the entrance.
It was operated by Lebanese born Nasr Al Dinn, who is designated as a Hezbollah operative by the US government.
He combined martial arts sessions with propaganda videos glorifying terrorist acts against America and Israel.
There are thousands of Colombian ELN and FARC guerrillas controlling the main border provinces with Colombia – through which tonnes of cocaine flow to export points in Venezuela.
They coordinate closely with local officials such as Tachira provincial governor Freddy Bernal, an ex-police detective who formed the Colectivos.
All the groups are armed with AK-103 assault rifles, Draganov high precision rifles and other sophisticated weapons acquired from Russia in massive quantities.
US military planners are especially concerned about an estimated 6,000 Igla-S shoulder fired MANPADS acquired by Venezuela.
These weapons can shoot down Blackhawk helicopters and other aircraft landing US troops.
And many Iglas are in the hands of Colectivos who are trained in their use and have been seen moving them around Caracas in trucks, according to intelligence reports.
Venezuela’s air force has locally produced versions of Iranian Shahed – 131 kamikaze drones that could be given over to Hezbollah cells by Iranian military advisers in Venezuela, according to the US Defense Intelligence Agency.
Maduro’s regime may also resort to using children and old people as human shields.
It’s reported that military families and other residents of buildings around Fort Tiuna trying to abandon the area in anticipation of US bombings are under lockdowns.
And there are also thousands of political prisoners that could be used as hostages.
While specialised US counter-terror teams may plan take down some of the prisons like the notorious Elocoide in Caracas, many jailed dissidents are scattered in makeshift torture facilities, according to a UN report.
Opposition sources fear that its sadistic chief, Granko Arteaga, who rose from being a personal bodyguard of Maduro’s, could threaten to exterminate them.
US Army War College senior specialist on Latin America, Dr Evan Ellis, said an operation to snatch Maduro has a 30 per cent chance of success.
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His Cuban minders are unlikely to let him get taken alive and might even arrange an escape to neighbouring Brazil or Colombia.
Their leftist presidents have been friendly to his regime – and may even facilitate covert support to terrorists seeking to destabilise a US-backed democratic government struggling to gain control of the country.
