Caracas, Venezuela – In the bustling plazas of Caracas, the rhythm of daily life carries on. Street vendors sell chocolates and frozen fruit, while shopkeepers stock shelves amid the afternoon rush. Yet beneath this familiar routine, a new tension hums.With United States military assets deployed near the Venezuelan coast and rhetoric heating up between Washington and Caracas, the capital’s residents find themselves divided – a few by hope, others by scepticism, and still others by a fierce instinct to defend their homeland.For some, the presence of foreign ships offshore represents a long-awaited answer to prayer. For others, it is an imperial affront to a sovereign nation.“The homeland is the homeland, and my army is my army,” says David Oropeza, a 52-year-old farmer and merchant who sells frozen strawberries and blackberries he harvests himself. Despite a health condition that requires treatment three times a week, he says he would be willing to fight if the US attacked.“I would be knee-deep in the dirt with those people. I would face [the invaders] with them [the Venezuelan army],” Oropeza tells Al Jazeera, as he waits for a bus in downtown Caracas, staring at the horizon. “I would help however I could.”‘A positive change’The US has conducted nearly two dozen strikes since September in the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean, killing more than 80 people. In the lat …
