“No empire will come to touch the sacred soil of Venezuela,” said President Maduro as Washington deployed military assets to the Caribbean.
CARACAS, (venezuelanalysis.com) – Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro has ordered the deployment of more than four million members of the National Bolivarian Militia to defend Venezuela’s “territory, sovereignty, and peace.”
The mobilization follows the US dispatching about 4,000 troops to the southern Caribbean Sea, at the edge of Venezuela’s territorial waters, in a purported anti-narcotics operation. This comes amid renewed criminalizing “narco-state” narratives against Caracas.
In a televised address on Monday, Maduro urged all militia members to be “armed and ready” to defend the entire national territory. He also ordered the activation of campesino (peasant) and workers’ militias in rural areas and factories nationwide.
“No empire will come to touch the sacred soil of Venezuela, nor should it touch the sacred soil of South America,” Maduro remarked.
The Bolivarian Militia is a voluntary combat unit of the Venezuelan armed forces that was created in 2005 by President Hugo Chávez. It is composed of civilian men and women of all ages.
Venezuelan defense minister Vladimir Padrino López responded on Tuesday that the militia was prepared to “defend every inch” of the Caribbean nation. Caracas has prohibited the use of drones in Venezuelan territory for 30 days.
On August 14, US secretary of state Marco Rubio confirmed the deployment of US naval and air forces in the Caribbean Sea in what he described as an effort to combat drug cartels that are “utilizing international airspace and international waters” to transport drugs to the United States.
The deployed US sailors and marines are assigned to the Iwo Jima (IWO) Amphibious Ready Group (ARG) and the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) Special Operations Capable (SOC). Both units are trained and equipped to conduct quick global missions to accomplish US strategic goals. They are not anti-narcotics units.
At a press conference, Rubio identified as a primary target the so-called “Cartel de los Soles,” which Washington alleges is led by Maduro and other high-ranking Venezuelan officials intent on “flooding” the US with narcotics.
“The Cartel de los Soles is one of the largest criminal organizations that exists in the hemisphere. It is indicted in the federal courts of the United States,” Rubio said. He added that the US does not recognize the Maduro government, calling it a “criminal enterprise” that threatens US national security and oil interests in Guyana, referencing Exxon Mobil’s operations in the disputed Essequibo region.
Over the years, US authorities have provided no court-tested evidence of narcotics activities by the Cartel de los Soles. The alleged cartel was designated on July 25 as a “foreign terrorist organization” by the US.
The designation was previously applied to the extinct “Tren de Aragua” gang to criminalize and forcibly expel Venezuelan migrants in the US without due process. A declassified US intelligence memo dismissed the alleged ties between “Tren de Aragua” and the Maduro administration. The gang was dismantled by Venezuelan authorities in 2023.
On Tuesday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said that Trump is “prepared to use every element of American power to stop drugs from flooding into our country and to bring those responsible to justice” when asked about military operations against Venezuela.
The troop deployment follows reports that president Donald Trump signed a secret executive order directing the Pentagon to use “military force” against Latin American drug cartels designated as terrorist organizations.
According to US media, the Trump administration has also allocated three Navy destroyers, a nuclear-powered attack submarine, and a guided-missile cruiser, among other assets, to the US Southern Command. On Tuesday, an anonymous US Defense Department official said the military assets would be deployed “over the course of several months.”
A Reuters report published on Monday stated that the three Aegis-guided missile destroyers would arrive off the coast of Venezuela within 36 hours. However, investigations have confirmed that there are no US warships currently en route to the area.
The US “counter-narcotics” extraterritorial military operation follows the August 7 announcement that Washington was raising the bounty for information leading to Maduro’s arrest or conviction from $25 million to $50 million.
In an August 13 interview with Fox News, US attorney general Pamela Bondi claimed that authorities had seized over US $700 million in assets belonging to the Venezuelan leader, but independent investigations found that there is no documentation tying the alleged assets to Maduro or other officials.
An independent investigation by La Tabla Blog found that the US lacks any records or legal documentation linking the alleged seized assets to Venezuelan officials, while the two seized jets correspond to Venezuelan state aircraft that were illegally confiscated by the US in the Dominican Republic in 2024 and 2025.
Washington has also accused the Maduro government of working with the Mexican Sinaloa Cartel. To this, Mexico’s president Claudia Sheinbaum has responded that there is no evidence of Sinaloa ties with Caracas.
The Caribbean nation has rejected the “narco-state” allegations as a “ridiculous smokescreen” and an old narrative that has been reactivated to fuel regime-change operations. A communique issued on Tuesday likewise called the US military threat an act of “desperation.”
“Washington’s accusations against Venezuela for drug trafficking reveal its lack of credibility and the failure of its policies in the region,” read the statement. It added that, since expelling the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) for espionage and illegal drug operations in 2005, Caracas has successfully dismantled drug trafficking networks.
According to experts, the bounty on Maduro and the US military show of force are intended to encourage paramilitary incursions and far-right schemes. Venezuela has previously faced mercenary attacks such as the failed “Operation Gideon” in 2020.
Recently, Venezuelan interior minister Diosdado Cabello reported that authorities had thwarted what he termed a new terrorist plot linked to far-right leader María Corina Machado, which involved blowing up public spaces and attacking political figures.
During his first administration, Trump said that “all options were on the table” for Venezuela after imposing crippling economic sanctions on the South American nation, which possesses the largest proven oil reserves in the world. In 2020, US forces staged a similar Caribbean military mobilization that was described as the largest deployment since the 1989 invasion of Panama.
Several Latin American organizations, social movements and governments—including Nicaragua, Cuba, Mexico, and Colombia—have strongly condemned the US’ military escalation as a threat to the region’s peace. Last week, thousands of Venezuelans held an anti-imperialist march to reject US aggression.
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