CaliToday (29/8/2025): Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro issued a defiant statement on Thursday, declaring there is "no way" the U.S. military could successfully invade his country, following Washington's deployment of several warships and 4,000 troops to the Caribbean Sea.
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| Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro applauds during the closing ceremony of the second Revolutionary Special Operations Course (COER), held at the Command Action Group of the Bolivarian National Guard at Macarao parish, in Caracas, Venezuela, August 28, 2025. / Credit: MIRAFLORES PALACE/Handout via Reuters |
The United States has stated that the deployment to the southern Caribbean, near Venezuela's territorial waters, is part of a broader counter-narcotics operation. However, Caracas views the move as a direct threat, responding with its own military maneuvers and a national recruitment drive for its civilian militia.
"There is no way they can invade Venezuela," Maduro asserted, pledging that his country was well-prepared to defend its "peace, sovereignty, and territorial integrity." The standoff marks a significant escalation in the long-simmering tensions between the two nations, even as the U.S. has made no overt public threat of an invasion.
A High-Stakes Standoff
In response to the American naval presence, Venezuela has dispatched its own warships and drones to patrol its coastline. Maduro also launched a campaign to enlist thousands of new militia members to bolster the country's defenses, with civil servants, homemakers, and retirees seen lining up in Caracas last weekend to join.
On the diplomatic front, Caracas petitioned the United Nations on Tuesday to intervene, demanding an "immediate cessation of the U.S. military deployment in the Caribbean."
Separately, Venezuela announced on Monday it was deploying 15,000 troops to its border with Colombia, also under the pretext of combating drug trafficking. Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello stated the deployment was intended to reinforce security in the border states of Zulia and Tachira.
The U.S. 'Maximum Pressure' Campaign
President Maduro, who claimed victory in a controversial July 2024 election, has been a target of U.S. President Donald Trump's "maximum pressure" policy since Trump's first term. This policy, which includes a crippling oil embargo, has so far failed to oust Maduro from power.
Washington has formally accused Maduro of leading a powerful cocaine-trafficking gang, the "Cartel of the Suns" (Cartel de los Soles), which the Trump administration has designated as a terrorist organization. The U.S. recently doubled the bounty for Maduro's capture to $50 million to face these narco-terrorism charges. Last year, in a pointed move, the U.S. seized an aircraft belonging to Maduro, flying it back to the United States after the Justice Department claimed it was illegally exported from Florida in violation of U.S. sanctions.
A Broader 'War on Cartels'
The deployment is consistent with a wider shift in U.S. policy. President Trump has directed the Pentagon to use military force against Latin American drug cartels that have been designated as terrorist organizations, a source confirmed to CBS News earlier this month.
In February, the Trump administration designated eight drug trafficking groups as terrorist organizations. Six are from Mexico, one from Venezuela, and the eighth is from El Salvador.
This new designation provides the legal framework for more direct action. Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated earlier this month that the administration could use these designations to "target" the drug cartels with the full might of American power.
"This allows us to target what they're engaged in and use other elements of American power, intelligence agencies, the Department of Defense, whatever... to target these groups if we have an opportunity," Rubio said. "We have to start treating them as the armed terrorist organizations they are, not simply as drug trafficking organizations."
This aggressive stance has caused friction with regional partners. Mexico has insisted it "will not accept the involvement of U.S. military forces on our territory," with President Claudia Sheinbaum affirming there would be "no invasion of Mexico."
While the U.S. frames its Caribbean operation as part of a regional anti-drug effort, for Maduro, it is a clear and direct threat of regime change from his long-standing adversary in the White House.
