Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro introduced on Monday the deployment of 4.5 million militiamen all through the nation, assuring that “no empire will touch the sacred soil of Venezuela,” after the United States doubled the reward for data main to his arrest and elevated the variety of troops crusing around Latin America and the Caribbean.
Last week, the US authorities confirmed to NCS that it had ordered naval actions within the area to include the menace from drug trafficking teams. On Monday, Reuters reported that three US Navy destroyers and a few 4,000 military personnel would arrive on the fringe of Venezuela’s territorial waters inside the subsequent 36 hours.
On Tuesday, nonetheless, a US Department of Defense official mentioned there are presently no US ships within the space and nor have the ships acquired orders to head there. Venezuelan territory has virtually 2,500 miles of shoreline.
“This week I am going to activate a special plan to guarantee coverage with more than 4.5 million militiamen throughout the national territory. Militias prepared, activated, and armed,” Maduro mentioned throughout a televised assembly with the nation’s governors and mayors.
The president described the “extravagant, bizarre and outlandish” US threats as “rotten rehashes,” with out specifying what he was referring to.
“We defend our seas, our skies, and our lands. We liberated them. We guard and patrol them. No empire will touch the sacred soil of Venezuela, nor should it touch the sacred soil of South America,” he emphasised in his speech.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt was requested Tuesday a couple of potential troop deployment to Venezuela following reviews of the military buildup. “President (Donald) Trump has been very clear and consistent. He’s prepared to use every element of American power to stop drugs from flooding into our country and to bring those responsible to justice,” she mentioned.
She additionally reiterated the US authorities’s place that Maduro “is not a legitimate president.” Washington and Caracas haven’t had formal bilateral diplomatic relations since 2019.
The Venezuelan authorities rejected Washington’s accusation of drug trafficking, saying in a press release that the US was resorting to “threats and defamation.”
The Venezuelan Militia, which was created in 2005 by the late President Hugo Chávez and formally established in 2010, is a part of the Bolivarian National Armed Forces (FANB) and has as its imaginative and prescient the “incorporation of the organized people” to assure the “comprehensive defense of the nation.”
Maduro mentioned he’ll transfer ahead with a plan to activate peasant and employee militias “in all factories and workplaces in the country.”
“Missiles and rifles for the working class, to defend our homeland,” he mentioned.
The Venezuelan Ministry of Defense says on its web site that the FANB “is made up of around 95,000 to 150,000 active combatants” and “a growing National Militia made up of hundreds of thousands of people capable of serving as reservists.”
The Global Fire Power web site, which focuses on military analyses and makes use of official statistics or makes estimates when they aren’t obtainable, ranks Venezuela fiftieth in military energy within the 2025 ranking, amongst 145 international locations. The United States ranks first, Russia second, and China third.
A number of weeks in the past, the Trump administration doubled the reward to $50 million for data main to the arrest of Maduro, whom it described as “one of the world’s largest drug traffickers,” head of the Cartel of the Suns, and a menace to US nationwide safety.
The Venezuelan authorities and different establishments within the nation rejected the announcement, and a number of other Chavista figures have dismissed the allegations. Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello has mentioned that the Cartel de los Soles is an “invention” of the US, and the Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino López has ‘categorically’ rejected Washington’s “ridiculous” accusations.