The Nicolás Maduro regime announced Sunday a large-scale military mobilization near Venezuela’s border and coastal regions, citing the need to combat drug trafficking — even as U.S. officials accuse Maduro and his top brass of leading the country’s drug trade themselves.
From a military bunker, Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino said that 25,000 troops have been deployed to the western states of Táchira and Zulia, which border Colombia. Venezuelan forces are now conducting operations in the Sierra de Perijá region to detect illegal coca cultivation and patrolling rivers in Apure state to disrupt smuggling routes. According to Padrino, the military is equipped with river patrol units, naval assets, drones, and other tactical resources.
The announcement comes as Washington and several Latin American nations intensify accusations that the Maduro government has turned Venezuela into a “narco-state.” The Trump administration, in turn, has escalated its military posture, dispatching a naval task force to the Caribbean in what it says is a crackdown on narcotics trafficking.
The U.S. deployment includes eight modern warships—some with amphibious assault capability—F-35 fighter jets, and a force of 4,500 personnel. The scale and sophistication of the operation has raised eyebrows throughout the region, with experts likening it to “bringing a howitzer to a knife fight.” It is the largest show of U.S. military force in the Caribbean in decades.
Tensions between Washington and Caracas have flared in recent days. Last week, President Trump announced that U.S. forces had intercepted and destroyed a drug-laden fast boat that originated from Venezuela. Soon after, the Pentagon reported that Venezuelan fighter jets flew alarmingly close to a U.S. Navy destroyer operating in international waters.
On Friday, Trump issued a stark warning: Venezuelan aircraft that threaten U.S. forces will be shot down.
The Trump administration has increasingly linked its anti-narcotics campaign as a top priority of the nation’s defense policy. The U.S. Justice Department has indicted Maduro and several senior officials on drug conspiracy charges and has offered a $50 million reward for his capture. American prosecutors accuse them of running the so-called “Cartel of the Suns,” a drug trafficking network allegedly embedded in the Venezuelan military.
Maduro has rejected the allegations as a cover for regime change. Calling them “fabricated,” he has placed Venezuela’s military on alert and vowed to mobilize civilian militias to defend the country’s sovereignty.
While announcing the recent troop deployments, Padrino emphasized that the operations were strictly targeting drug traffickers. He avoided making any reference to potential confrontation with U.S. forces, a notable shift in tone following weeks of fiery rhetoric.
Still, Padrino himself is among those indicted in the U.S. on drug trafficking charges.
He said troop reinforcements are also being sent to several strategic coastal locations, including Venezuela’s Guajira region, the Paraguaná Peninsula in Falcón state, Margarita Island, the Gulf of Paria in Sucre, and Delta Amacuro in the east. Some of these areas, he noted, are linked to “Operation Gideon,” a failed 2020 maritime incursion by Venezuelan dissidents and American contractors that Caracas claims was funded by narcotics proceeds.
“Our Navy continues to patrol the Caribbean and Atlantic coasts, while the Air Force protects our skies,” Padrino said. “Defending our sovereignty is a task no one else will do for us.”
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