Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro has declared his nation in a state of “maximum readiness to defend” itself against what he described as an unprecedented threat from the United States.
On Monday in Caracas, he claimed that “eight military ships with 1,200 missiles and a submarine are targeting Venezuela.” He called the deployment “the greatest threat that has been seen on our continent in the last 100 years.”
The US, however, maintains that the operation is aimed at curbing drug trafficking in the Caribbean. Washington has not openly threatened an invasion.
Tensions in the Caribbean
One of the vessels, a guided missile cruiser, was seen passing through the Panama Canal late Friday, heading for the Caribbean. Maduro said that in response to such “military pressure,” his government has mobilized its forces.
“In response to maximum military pressure, we have declared maximum readiness to defend Venezuela,” he told international journalists.
According to him, more than eight million Venezuelans have signed up as reservists. Caracas has already ordered increased patrols of its territorial waters.
The United States has doubled its bounty on Maduro to $50 million, accusing him of running a drug cartel and winning re-elections in 2018 and 2024 through fraud and voter suppression.
Regional Reactions and Border Dispute
Maduro accused US Secretary of State Marco Rubio of trying to push Donald Trump “into a bloodbath… with a massacre against the people of Venezuela.”
Guyana’s President Irfaan Ali, however, welcomed the US presence as “anything to eliminate any threat to our security.”
The two neighbors remain locked in a bitter row over the oil-rich Essequibo region, which has been administered by Guyana for more than a century but is claimed by Caracas. Tensions spiked after ExxonMobil discovered huge oil reserves there a decade ago.
However, despite the fiery rhetoric, the US military deployment is unlikely to escalate into an invasion. Washington is probably more interested in tightening pressure on Maduro than in launching a direct conflict.
Still, the Venezuelan leader has warned his country is ready for “a period of armed struggle in defense of the national territory.”
Last week, his government appealed to the United Nations to demand an end to the US deployment.
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