The U.S. and Venezuela appear to be heading towards a conflict with the US aggressively threatening the Latin American country with another blatant provocation.
The Venezuelan government on Monday mobilized more than four million militia troops seemingly in response to reports of U.S. naval movements in the region.
“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,” Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro said in a televised address Monday.
Three U.S. Navy missile destroyers have been deployed to the waters off Venezuela, U.S. officials told said on Monday.
Washington and Caracas broke off formal bilateral diplomatic relations in 2019 during Trump’s first term, after Trump backed unelected, far right leader Juan Guaidó in the early stages of a dysfunctional coup attempt. The US has a long history of interfering and attacking Venezuela and other Latin American countries.
The Trump regime has also targeted Venezuelans on immigration pretexts, revoking the protected status of hundreds of thousands of Venezuelan immigrants in the U.S. and deporting 238 Venezuelans in March to an El Salvadoran prison as part of a mass ethnic cleansing campaign.
On Monday, the US regime ordered three U.S. Navy missile destroyers—USS Gravely, USS Jason Dunham and USS Sampson—and around 4,000 military personnel to the edge of Venezuela’s territorial waters.
The Trump regime is also committing additional military assets in the broader region within international airspace and waters, including several P-8 spy planes, warships, and an attack submarine, an official said.
“This week, I will activate a special plan with more than 4.5 million militiamen to ensure coverage of the entire national territory—militias that are prepared, activated and armed,” Maduro said Monday.
The Venezuelan Militia was created in 2005 by the late President Hugo Chávez and formally established in 2010.
Maduro’s plan will involve mobilizing peasant and worker militias “in all factories and workplaces in the country” and providing “missiles and rifles for the working class, to defend our homeland,” the Venezuelan President said Monday. Maduro called U.S. threats “rotten rehashes” and “extravagant, bizarre, and outlandish.”
The Venezuelan government also temporarily banned the purchase, sale, and operation of drones in Venezuelan airspace on Tuesday. A drone laden with explosives detonated near Maduro in 2018 in a US-backed assassination attempt.