Africa-Press – Uganda. President Yoweri Museveni has said that Uganda has the military firepower, skill, and experience to effectively defend itself on land, as the East African nation’s long-serving leader reflects on the recent events in Venezuela.
Though US President Donald Trump publicly said Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro had been seized over alleged drug trafficking — allegations that Maduro denied — President Museveni said on Sunday that he did “not know what (Trump and Maduro) are fighting for.”
“I am still watching, still studying it, we shall learn more,” Museveni, who will seek re-election later January, told a youth convention in Uganda’s capital Kampala on Sunday.
Commenting on the manner in which Maduro was controversially taken into American custody, Museveni stated that US troops leveraged their naval and aerial strengths to execute the mission.
Land combat ‘very risky’ for Americans: Museveni
“The Americans are operating from four dimensions: they are operating from the sea, but the (forces of the) Latin Americans are not there; they (US troops) can also come from the air, and then the space. Now, they are trying to come on land, which, of course, is very risky for the Americans,” the Ugandan leader said.
According to Museveni, American soldiers’ combat capabilities on land are not as effective as their strengths in the air and water, battle areas that do not require close contact between the combatants.
“There (on land), you come near (the opponent), because even me, who has a short-range (weaponry), can harm you. But (up) there, you are at an advantage; you are seeing me in space, and I am not seeing you; you are in the ocean, I am not there.”
President Museveni made the remarks on January 4, when he addressed a youth forum convened by his daughter Natasha Museveni at Uganda’s State Lodge, Nakasero, in Kampala.
Re-election bid
The head of state will seek a seventh term on January 15, 2026 against 43-year-old pop star-turned-politician, Bobi Wine.
Museveni won the last presidential election in 2021 against Wine, getting 58% of the vote against Wine’s 35%.
Museveni says his lengthy rule has witnessed notable economic, political, and security stability, especially in a region where conflicts in eastern DRC and parts of South Sudan occasionally threaten to spill over into Uganda.
According to the Global Firepower Index, a platform that ranks countries’ military strengths based on their training, equipment, and budgets, Uganda ranks 23rd in Africa, most notably behind its East African neighbours Kenya, Tanzania, DRC, and South Sudan. Egypt, Algeria, and Nigeria are the continent’s strongest militaries respectively, according to the firepower report.
Venezuela events trigger global debate
The January 3 happenings in Venezuela triggered a global conversation about the actual state of countries’ sovereignty and whether the international law protecting individual nations’ territorial integrity is being adhered to.On Saturday, American troops aboard at least 150 aircraft descended in Venezuela’s capital, Caracas, and seized the country’s President Nicolas Maduro, 63, and his wife, Cilia Flores, 69.
According to Venezuelan authorities, that operation left at least 40 people dead, most of them soldiers guarding Maduro at the presidential palace.
President Donald Trump’s administration alleges that the Venezuelan president and his wife have played a major role in the trafficking of “thousands of tonnes of cocaine” into the United States over the years, but both Maduro and his spouse deny the allegations.
Largest crude reserves in the world
Maduro, who, shortly before his abduction, expressed willingness to cooperate with Washington in the fight against drug trafficking, claims that the US is targeting Venezuela’s substantial oil wealth, but the US says it wants the installation of “good leadership.”
Venezuela has the world’s largest proven crude reserves, at over 300 billion barrels, though a significant volume is yet to be extracted.
That volume places Venezuela way ahead of oil giants Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, and Libya in terms of untapped oil reserves. It also means that Venezuela has a fifth of the world’s oil reserves, according to the US Energy Information Administration (EIA).
Trump says US to run Venezuela’s oil operations
The Latin American nation’s heavy oil grade is lucrative because it is needed for diesel fuel, asphalt, and other fuels for heavy equipment.
Currently, diesel is scarce globally because of the sanctions on oil from Venezuela and Russia, and because USA’s lighter crude oil cannot easily replace it.
President Trump said that Washington would run Venezuela’s oil industry, a pronouncement that has widely been criticised, especially by China, which has been making inroads into the global oil sector.
Venezuelan leader, Maduro, and his spouse, Flores, have since been taken to New York, where they are expected to face drug-related charges.
Venezuela top court orders VP to serve as president
The American law states that a person risks mandatory life imprisonment if they are convicted of repeated or large-scale trafficking of hard drugs.
Following Maduro’s seizure, Venezuela’s Supreme Court recently ordered his vice, 56-year-old Delcy Rodriguez, to serve as interim president as the nation of nearly 30 million people charts its return to normalcy.
Nicolas Maduro first came to office as Venezuela’s president in 2013, and was serving his third six-year term, when the US seized him.
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