Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has pledged to mobilise more than four million militia fighters in response to new United States “threats” after Washington raised a reward for his arrest and launched new antidrug operations in the Caribbean.
“This week, I will activate a special plan with more than 4.5 million militiamen to ensure coverage of the entire national territory – militias that are prepared, activated and armed,” Maduro said in a televised address on Monday.
Venezuela’s militia was created by former President Hugo Chavez and is officially said to have about five million members although analysts suggested the real figure is lower. The country’s total population is about 30 million.
Maduro denounced the “extravagant, bizarre and outlandish threats” from Washington. His comments came after US President Donald Trump’s administration doubled its reward for his arrest to $50m. It accuses him of leading a cocaine smuggling network known as the Cartel de los Soles.
The US government, which refuses to recognise Maduro’s last two election victories, recently imposed new sanctions on both his administration and the alleged cartel. The US has not provided any evidence linking Maduro to drug cartels.
At the same time, the US military has deployed three US guided-missile destroyers to the southern Caribbean as part of a broader operation against Latin American drug cartels.
The USS Gravely, USS Jason Dunham and USS Sampson are expected to arrive off Venezuela’s coast within days, according to officials briefed on the plan, the Reuters news agency reported. About 4,000 sailors and Marines are to join the deployment.
“We are also deployed throughout the Caribbean … in our sea, our property, Venezuelan territory,” Venezuelan Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello said.
Maduro urged his political base to expand worker and peasant militias and promised to arm them with “rifles and missiles” to defend the country’s sovereignty.
Despite the mounting pressure, the Venezuelan leader expressed gratitude for international voices that have spoken against the US stance, dismissing Washington’s rhetoric as a “rotten refrain”.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum this month rejected US allegations linking Maduro to Mexico’s Sinaloa Cartel, saying her government had no evidence of such ties.
