Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said Thursday there was “no way” American troops could invade Venezuela after Washington deployed multiple warships and 4,000 troops to the Caribbean to pressure the leftist strongman.
The United States said the deployment to the southern Caribbean, near Venezuela’s territorial waters, is an anti-drug trafficking operation.
Venezuela has responded by sending warships and drones to patrol its coastline and launching a drive to recruit thousands of militia members to bolster its defenses.
“There’s no way they can enter Venezuela,” Maduro said, vowing that his country was well prepared to defend its “peace, sovereignty and territorial integrity.”
The United States has, however, made no public threat to invade.
Maduro, who claimed a disputed third term in July 2024 elections, has been in President Donald Trump’s sights ever since the Republican’s first term in office.
Since returning to power in January, Mr. Trump’s attacks on Venezuela have focused chiefly on its powerful gangs, some of which operate inside the United States. But his policy of maximum pressure on Venezuela, including an oil embargo still in effect, failed to dislodge Maduro from power.
MIRAFLORES PALACE/Handout via Reuters
Washington accuses Maduro of heading a cocaine trafficking cartel, Cartel de los Soles, which the Trump administration has designated a terrorist organization.
The United States recently doubled its bounty to $50 million for Maduro’s capture to face drug charges. Last year, the U.S. seized a plane belonging to Maduro and brought it to the U.S., with the Justice Department claiming the jet was exported from Florida in violation of U.S. sanctions.
Maduro, who succeeded socialist firebrand Hugo Chavez in 2013, has accused Trump of attempting to effect regime change.
Thousands of civil servants, housewives and retirees lined up in Venezuela’s capital last weekend to join the country’s militia after Maduro called on citizens to respond to “outlandish threats” by the U.S.
On Tuesday, Caracas petitioned the United Nations to intervene in the dispute by demanding “the immediate cessation of the U.S. military deployment in the Caribbean.”
Venezuela on Monday announced the deployment of 15,000 troops to the Colombia border to fight drug trafficking. Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello announced that the government was deploying the troops to bolster security in Zulia and Tachira states, which border Colombia.
U.S. targeting Latin American drug cartels
President Trump has directed the Pentagon to use military force against Latin American drug cartels deemed terrorist organizations, a source familiar with the matter confirmed to CBS News earlier this month. It’s not clear if or when the military could take action.
For its part, Mexico stressed that it “would not accept the participation of U.S. military forces on our territory.” Earlier this month, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum insisted that there would be “no invasion of Mexico.”
In February, the Trump administration designated eight drug trafficking groups as terrorist organizations. Six are Mexican, one is Venezuelan, and the eighth originates in El Salvador.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said earlier this month the administration could use the designations to “target” cartels.
“It allows us to now target what they’re operating and to use other elements of American power, intelligence agencies, the Department of Defense, whatever … to target these groups if we have an opportunity to do it,” Rubio said. “We have to start treating them as armed terrorist organizations, not simply drug dealing organizations.”