Reuters. Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on Monday (September 1) accused the United States of escalating military threats against his country, claiming eight military ships, including a nuclear submarine, were targeting Venezuela, and vowed to prepare for its defense, he said in a rare press conference.
Tensions between the United States and Venezuela have risen in recent weeks amid a large U.S. naval buildup in the Southern Caribbean and nearby waters, which U.S. officials say aims to address threats from Latin American drug cartels.
U.S. President Donald Trump has made cracking down on drug cartels a central goal of his administration, part of a wider effort to limit migration and secure the U.S. southern border.
But Maduro, Venezuelan Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello and other officials have said the U.S. is threatening their country and the buildup is meant to justify an intervention against them.
"It is an extravagant, unjustifiable, immoral, and absolutely criminal threat," Maduro told journalists, officials and uniformed military brass in Caracas.
Venezuela's government has scoffed at U.S. assertions that the country and its leadership are key to major international drug trafficking.
Maduro also directed remarks at then-U.S. President Donald Trump, alleging that U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio was attempting to provoke conflict in South America. "Mr. President Donald Trump, you have to take care of yourself because Marco Rubio wants to stain your hands with blood," Maduro said. He warned of a potential "full-scale war across the entire continent" if tensions escalated.
In early August, the United States doubled its reward for information leading to Maduro's arrest to $50 million over allegations of drug trafficking and links to criminal groups.
While U.S. Coast Guard and Navy ships regularly operate in the Southern Caribbean, this buildup is significantly larger than usual deployments in the region.
But it is unclear exactly how the U.S. military presence would disrupt the drug trade.
Most of the seaborne drug trade travels to the United States via the Pacific, not the Atlantic, where the U.S. forces are, and much of what arrives via the Caribbean comes on clandestine flights, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime's 2023 Global Report on Cocaine.
