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In the murky waters of a small bay north of Lake Maracaibo, Wilder Fernández has hauled in four sizable fish.
These will provide dinner for his small crew before they embark on their evening fishing expedition.
However, this daily routine has recently become a source of apprehension for him.
After 13 years as a fisherman, Mr. Fernández now admits to fearing that his livelihood could turn deadly.
His concern stems not from the threat of nighttime attacks, a danger fishermen in the region have faced in the past, but from the possibility of being caught in a strike launched by a foreign power.
“It’s crazy, man,” he remarks, referring to the deployment of U.S. warships, fighter jets, a submarine, and thousands of troops in waters north of the Venezuelan coast.
The U.S. force patrolling the Caribbean is part of a military operation targeting suspected “narco-terrorists” allegedly linked to the Venezuelan government led by Nicolás Maduro, according to the White House.
Since September 2nd, the U.S. has conducted several strikes against what it has labeled “narco-boats,” resulting in at least 27 fatalities.
The U.S. has accused those killed of drug smuggling but has yet to present concrete evidence. Experts have raised concerns that these strikes may violate international law.
Tensions between the U.S. and Venezuela intensified further on Wednesday when U.S. President Donald Trump stated that he was considering strikes on Venezuelan soil.
He also confirmed that he had authorized the CIA to conduct covert operations within Venezuela.
Mr. Fernández is well-aware of the latest developments.
Despite U.S. claims that the strikes have occurred thousands of kilometers from his fishing grounds, his wife has been urging him to leave Lake Maracaibo.
She pleads with him daily to abandon his fishing profession. “She tells me to look for another job, but there’s nowhere to go,” he explains.
He acknowledges the possibility of his boat being hit “by mistake.”
“Of course it worries me, you never know. I think about it every day, man,” says the father of three.
The day after BBC Mundo spoke with Mr. Fernández, President Trump announced that “six narco-terrorists” had been killed in the latest U.S. strike in international waters off the Venezuelan coast.
Trump added that “intelligence confirmed the vessel was trafficking narcotics, was associated with illicit narcoterrorist networks.”
The Trump administration accuses Maduro of leading the Cartel of the Suns drug trafficking gang and is offering a $50 million (£37 million) reward for information leading to his capture.
Maduro, whose legitimacy as Venezuela’s president is internationally contested following disputed elections last year, has denied the cartel accusations. He dismisses them as a White House attempt to remove him from power.
In his most recent statement, he appealed on television for peace with the U.S.
Meanwhile, Venezuela’s Defense Minister General Vladimir Padrino has warned Venezuelans to prepare “for the worst.”
Speaking after the incursion of five F-35 fighter jets into Venezuelan airspace on October 2nd, Gen. Padrino stated that his nation faced a “serious threat” that could involve “aerial bombings, naval blockades, undercover commandos landing on Venezuelan beaches or in the Venezuelan jungle, swarms of drones, sabotage, and targeted killings of leaders.”
Venezuela also denounced the “mounting threats” from the U.S. at the United Nations Security Council last week.
In response, the U.S. representative at the UN meeting, John Kelley, emphasized that his country “will not waver in our action to protect our nation from narcoterrorists.”
Meanwhile, the attacks in the Caribbean have undermined the security of fishermen in Venezuela, laments Jennifer Nava, spokeswoman for the Council of Fishermen in El Bajo, in Venezuela’s Zulia state.
Ms. Nava tells BBC Mundo that those employed in the fishing industry fear being caught in the crossfire between U.S. forces and alleged drug traffickers.
Ms. Nava argues that the increased risks faced by fishermen could push some into the hands of drug and arms smugglers seeking to recruit them for transporting illicit shipments.
“Some of these guys are approached by traffickers,” she explains, adding that a decline in the fishing industry could make fishermen more vulnerable to such offers.
There is certainly a palpable sense of unease among the fishermen of Lake Maracaibo.
Most of the crew of two small fishing boats owned by Usbaldo Albornoz refused to work when news of the U.S. strikes broke.
Mr. Albornoz, who has been in the fishing business for 32 years, describes the situation as “worrying.”
“The guys didn’t want to go out to sea to fish,” he told BBC Mundo on the beach in San Francisco de Zulia, which sits on the northern shore of Lake Maracaibo where it meets the Gulf of Venezuela.
The fear of being hit by a U.S. strike is the latest in a long list of risks he and his men face, including pirates, oil spills, and a decline in earnings in recent years, Mr. Albornoz explains.
In a leaked memo recently sent to U.S. lawmakers, the Trump administration said it had determined it was involved in a “non-international armed conflict” with drug-trafficking organizations.
The White House described the attacks on the boats in the Caribbean as “self-defense” in response to criticism by legal experts who said they were illegal.
But beyond the fear many are experiencing, there is also a feeling of defiance.
At the end of September, hundreds of fishermen on dozens of boats took to Lake Maracaibo in a show of support for the Maduro government and in protest at the U.S. military deployment.
José Luzardo was one of them. A spokesman for the fishermen of El Bajo, he has been fishing for almost 40 years and accuses the U.S. of “pointing its cannons towards our Venezuela.”
He says he is not afraid and would give his life to defend his homeland.
“The Trump administration has us cornered. If we have to lay down our lives to defend the government, then we’ll do it, so that this whole shebang is over,” he says.
He insists that what the fishermen want is “peace and work,” not war, but gets visibly angry when he refers to the “military barrier” he says the U.S. has deployed in the Caribbean.
Last month, the Venezuelan government mobilized members of the militia and called on those who had not signed up to the civilian force to do so.
More than 16,000 fishermen followed his call, according to fisheries minister Juan Carlos Loyo.
Luzardo, who has been fishing since he was 11 years old says he will “be ready for battle, wherever needed.”
“If they [the U.S.] want to kill us, then so be it, but we’re not afraid.”
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