Spanish
Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro ordered this Sunday the mobilization of 25,000 members of the Bolivarian National Armed Forces (FANB) to reinforce border defense in the Binational Zone of Peace with Colombia and the Caribbean facade, amid rising tensions with the U.S. over its military presence in the southern Caribbean.
According to the president, the measure seeks to reinforce border security and expand the geographical scope, which will now cover from La Guajira to Falcón state, especially in the Paraguaná peninsula, extending to the states of Nueva Esparta, Sucre and Delta Amacuro, to cover both the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean.
He also indicated that the main reasons for the mega-operation are "the defense of national sovereignty, the security of the country and the fight for peace." According to Venezolana de Televisión, it is one of the largest military deployments in the recent history of the country. "We, Venezuelans, defend Venezuela!" Maduro asserted.
The measure was taken a few days after the US government announced the attack against a vessel of "11 narco-terrorists from the Tren de Aragua." In the words of President Donald Trump, the blowing up of the boat would have taken place in "international waters" and would have claimed the lives of all crew members.
Rising tensions
Tensions between Washington and Caracas escalated after international media announced in August a US military deployment in the southern Caribbean to supposedly confront drug cartels. Similarly, US Attorney General Pamela Bondi doubled the reward for information leading to the arrest of the Venezuelan president under the unfounded accusation of leading a "narcotrafficking cartel".
This has been denounced by Caracas as maneuvers aimed at forcing a political change and seizing its natural resources. To counter the US deployment, Maduro called for voluntary enlistment in the Bolivarian Militia for the defense of sovereignty. So far, 8.2 million people have registered.
Likewise, Maduro declared that the accusations of drug trafficking against his country are a lie "as crude and as false as that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction." In that context, he indicated that "Venezuela is not a relevant country in terms of drug trafficking" and stressed, citing UN data, that all cocaine is produced in Colombia, which "has more than 400,000 hectares of coca leaves."
Despite the increase in friction, Maduro was open to dialogue with Trump as long as the "gunboat diplomacy" of his Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, was not imposed.
