CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) \u2014 Venezuelan President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro on Monday said he \u201cwould constitutionally declare a republic in arms\u201d if the South American country were attacked by forces that the United States government has deployed to the Caribbean. <\/p>\n
His comments during a news conference come as the U.S. government this week is set to boost its maritime force in the waters off Venezuela<\/a> to combat threats from Latin American drug cartels<\/a>. The U.S. has not signaled any planned land incursion by the thousands of personnel being deployed. Still, Maduro\u2019s government has responded by deploying troops along its coast and border with neighboring Colombia, as well as by urging Venezuelans to enlist in a civilian militia.<\/p>\n \u201cIn the face of this maximum military pressure, we have declared maximum preparedness for the defense of Venezuela,\u201d Maduro said of the deployment, which he characterized as \u201can extravagant, unjustifiable, immoral and absolutely criminal and bloody threat.\u201d<\/p>\n The U.S. Navy now has two Aegis guided-missile destroyers<\/a> \u2014 the USS Gravely and the USS Jason Dunham \u2014 in the Caribbean, as well as the destroyer USS Sampson and the cruiser USS Lake Erie in the waters off Latin America. That military presence is set to expand. <\/p>\n Three amphibious assault ships \u2014 a force that encompasses more than 4,000 sailors and Marines \u2014 would be entering the region this week, a defense official told The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity to describe ongoing operations.<\/p>\n The deployment comes as President Donald Trump has pushed for using the military to thwart cartels he blames for the flow of fentanyl and other illicit drugs into U.S. communities and for perpetuating violence in some U.S. cities.<\/p>\n On Monday, Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yv\u00e1n Gil, citing a United Nations report, told his counterparts in various Latin American countries that the deployment of U.S. maritime forces is built on a \u201cfalse narrative\u201d as 87% of cocaine produced in Colombia departs through the Pacific and traffickers attempt to move only 5% of their product through Venezuela. Landlocked Bolivia and Colombia, with access to the Pacific and Caribbean, are the world\u2019s top cocaine producers.<\/p>\n Gil added that the narrative \u201cthreatens the entire region\u201d and an attack on Venezuela \u201cwould really mean a complete destabilization of the region.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cLet us immediately demand an end to this deployment, which has no other reason than to threaten a sovereign people,\u201d he added during a virtual meeting of members of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States regional group.<\/p>\n Maduro also used his news conference to insist that he was the legitimate winner<\/a> of last year\u2019s presidential election<\/a>. But ample and credible evidence<\/a> has shown the contrary, prompting several countries, including the U.S., to not recognize Maduro as Venezuela\u2019s president.<\/p>\n Maduro, sworn in to a third six-year term in January, added that his government maintains two lines of communication with the Trump administration, one with the State Department and another with Trump\u2019s envoy for special missions, Richard Grenell. He called Secretary of State Marco Rubio<\/a> a \u201cwarlord\u201d pushing for action in the Caribbean to topple Venezuela\u2019s government. <\/p>\n Since the July 2024 presidential election<\/a>, Venezuela\u2019s political opposition has been urging the U.S. and other countries to pressure Maduro into leaving office. Its leader, Mar\u00eda Corina Machado, last month thanked Trump and Rubio for the deployment of the vessels<\/a>, describing the move as \u201cthe right approach\u201d toward Venezuela\u2019s government, which she described as a \u201ccriminal enterprise.\u201d <\/p>\n Maduro on Monday, however, warned that U.S. military action against Venezuela would \u201cstain\u201d Trump\u2019s \u201chands with blood.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cPresident Donald Trump, the pursuit of regime change is exhausted; it has failed as a policy worldwide,\u201d Maduro said. \u201cYou cannot pretend to impose a situation in Venezuela.\u201d <\/p>\n ___<\/p>\n Garcia Cano reported from Mexico City. Associated Press writer Konstantin Toropin in Washington contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) \u2014 Venezuelan President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro on Monday said he \u201cwould constitutionally declare a republic in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":390135,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5311],"tags":[26719,122563,48181,25911,32,4179,135150,3274,135149,2820,8617,37887,285,35417,22713,124432,49,5213,978,659,8518,103471,7660,263],"class_list":{"0":"post-390134","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"tag-caribbean","9":"tag-caribbean-sea","10":"tag-central-america","11":"tag-colombia","12":"tag-donald-trump","13":"tag-general-news","14":"tag-jason-dunham","15":"tag-latin-america","16":"tag-mara-corina-machado","17":"tag-marco-rubio","18":"tag-military-and-defense","19":"tag-nicolas-maduro","20":"tag-politics","21":"tag-richard-grenell","22":"tag-south-america","23":"tag-u-s-navy","24":"tag-united-states","25":"tag-united-states-government","26":"tag-us","27":"tag-usa","28":"tag-venezuela","29":"tag-venezuela-government","30":"tag-war-and-unrest","31":"tag-world-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115130990909162473","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390134","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=390134"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390134\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/390135"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=390134"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=390134"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=390134"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}