Venezuela mobilizes 25,000 troops amid rising US presence in Caribbean

Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro has ordered the deployment of an additional 25,000 soldiers in the Caribbean region in response to the growing U.S. military presence.

In mid-August, reports indicated that the United States was moving warships and several thousand naval forces to the area. “I have ordered the deployment of 25,000 troops from our glorious army along the border zone with Colombia and toward the Caribbean Sea—from Guajira to Falcón—to strengthen the actions of rapid reaction units, as well as to enhance control over all operations in the Eastern Caribbean in the states of Nueva Esparta, Sucre, and Delta Amacuro,” Maduro wrote on his social media account.

The Venezuelan leader said the mobilization’s main purpose is to defend national sovereignty, security, and the struggle for peace.

On Sept. 2, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced that U.S. forces had carried out a lethal strike in the Caribbean against a drug-trafficking vessel allegedly departing from Venezuela.