Wilder Fernández has caught four good-sized fish in the murky waters of a small bay north of Lake Maracaibo. The contents of his net will serve as dinner for his small team before they set out to go fishing again in the evening. But this daily task is a job he has recently become scared of doing.
After 13 years as a fisherman, Mr. Fernández confesses that he now fears his job could turn lethal. He is afraid he could die in these waters not at the hands of a night-time attacker - a threat fishermen like him encountered in the past - but rather, killed in a strike launched by a foreign power.
It's crazy, man, he says of the deployment of US warships, fighter jets, a submarine and thousands of US troops in waters north of Venezuela's coast.
The US force patrolling in the Caribbean is part of a military operation targeting suspected narco-terrorists, which according to the White House have links to the Venezuelan government led by Nicolás Maduro. Since 2 September, the US has carried out a number of strikes against what it labelled narco-boats, in which at least 27 people have been killed.
The US has accused those killed of smuggling drugs but has so far not presented any evidence. Experts have suggested the strikes could be illegal under international law.
Tensions between the US and Venezuela escalated further on Wednesday when US President Donald Trump said that he was considering strikes on Venezuelan soil. He also confirmed that he had authorised the CIA to carry out covert operations inside Venezuela.
Mr. Fernández is across the latest news. Even though the strikes are said by the US to have happened thousands of kilometres from where he fishes, his wife has been trying to convince him to leave Lake Maracaibo. Every day she begs him to leave his fishing job. She tells me to look for another job, but there's nowhere to go, he explains.
He does not rule out that his boat could be hit by mistake. Of course it worries me, you never know. I think about it every day, man, the father of three says.
Venezuelan Defence Minister General Vladimir Padrino has warned Venezuelans to prepare for the worst. Speaking after the incursion on 2 October of five F-35 fighter jets in Venezuelan airspace, Gen Padrino said that his nation was facing a serious threat which he warned 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.
Meanwhile, the attacks in the Caribbean have undermined the security of the 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 people employed in the fishing industry fear being hit in the crossfire between US forces and alleged drug traffickers.
The fear of being hit by a US strike is the latest of 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 US lawmakers, the Trump administration said it had determined it was involved in a non-international armed conflict with drug-trafficking organisations. The White House described the attacks on the boats in the Caribbean as self-defence in response to criticism by legal experts who said they were illegal.
Ultimately, amid lingering fears, many Venezuelan fishermen such as José Luzardo express a sense of defiance against what they perceive as an external threat, asserting their right to defend their livelihoods and homeland.
