While the United States and Dutch allied militaries hold war games in the Caribbean, military maneuvers are being performed by Venezuela in that same region, which involve 10,000 active service troops and 3,500 civilians and reservists as well as F-16s and helicopters. According to the Venezuelan army commander, Vice Admiral Armando Laguna, the Venezuelan navy was not moving to respond to the U.S. Naval war games, as they had been scheduled since the previous year as a part of Venezuela’s “Integral Patriotic Naval Defense Operation,” part of the nation’s program of militarization and self-defense involving incorporation of vast civilian militias, the Territorial Guard.