Venezuela at ‘maximum preparedness’ with US warships in Caribbean: Maduro
Venezuela is at “maximum preparedness” in light of the U.S. military bolstering its maritime force in the Caribbean to combat threats from Latin American drug cartels, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro said.
“In the face of this maximum military pressure, we have declared maximum preparedness for the defense of Venezuela,” Maduro said on Monday during a press conference, according to The Associated Press (AP).
Maduro described the deployment of several U.S. ships, a submarine and Marines as “an extravagant, unjustifiable, immoral and absolutely criminal and bloody threat.”
President Trump’s administration has seven warships, a nuclear-powered submarine, over 4,500 Marines and sailors near Venezuela or are about to be, a U.S. defense official confirmed to The Hill’s sister network NewsNation over the weekend.
“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,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt previously said of Trump.
The U.S. has not indicated it is preparing a land invasion into Venezuela. Caracas has ordered 15,000 troops to the nation’s border.
The Trump administration has characterized the buildup of Coast Guard and Navy ships as an anti-drug trafficking operation, one that has received backing from Venezuela’s neighbor, Guyana.
The Navy has the USS Gravely and the USS Jason Dunham, two Aegis guided-missile destroyers, already in the Caribbean, a defense official told the AP.
Trump has supported utilizing the U.S. military to stifle the Latin American cartels he accuses of bolstering the flow of fentanyl and other drugs into the country.
Maduro said on Monday a potential U.S. military operation against Venezuela will “stain” the president’s “hands with blood.”
“President Donald Trump, the pursuit of regime change is exhausted; it has failed as a policy worldwide. You cannot pretend to impose a situation in Venezuela,” Maduro said, according to AP.