Venezuela has deployed warships and drones along its coast in response to the US stationing three destroyers aimed at pressuring President Nicolás Maduro.
In a video on social media, Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino announced a “significant” drone deployment as well as naval patrols along its Caribbean coast, including “larger vessels further north in our territorial waters.”
The move comes amid escalating tensions with Washington, as the US has dispatched three destroyers and an amphibious squadron—carrying about 4,000 Marines—off the coast of Venezuela, allegedly to curb drug trafficking.
According to an American source who spoke to AFP on Tuesday, US President Donald Trump was dispatching two additional ships to the Caribbean under the pretext of combating drug cartels.
A guided missile cruiser, the USS Erie, and a nuclear-powered fast attack submarine, the USS Newport News, are due in the region next week, the source added.
Caracas and its allies call the patrols a direct threat to Venezuela’s sovereignty.
On Tuesday, Caracas petitioned the United Nations to intervene in the dispute by demanding “the immediate cessation of the US military deployment in the Caribbean.”
The Trump administration has also escalated its pressure campaign, increasing the reward for Maduro’s capture to $50 million, claiming that he is “one of the world’s largest narco-traffickers,” an allegation roundly rejected by Caracas.
Maduro has responded by mobilizing 4.5 million members of the Bolivarian Militia and ordering a 30-day suspension of drone flights nationwide, in order to thwart US threats of war against his country.
Venezuela and the US severed formal diplomatic relations in 2019 after the latter backed opposition leader Juan Guaido in the Latin American country’s presidential election.
Sanctions have also been imposed to pressure the Venezuelan leader to step down in favor of the opposition leader, whom the US and its Western allies have recognized as the country’s legitimate president.
Maduro, however, has secured a third term in office after Venezuela’s National Electoral Council declared him the winner of last year’s presidential election.