Venezuela on Edge as Maduro Issues Armed Struggle Warning and U.S. Strikes Drug Vessel

CARACAS - Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro declared on Tuesday that Venezuela faces the gravest threat Latin America has seen in a century, warning that if the United States were to attack, he would “declare an armed struggle and a Republic in arms” to defend his country. The stark pronouncement came during a press conference with international media, held in response to what Maduro described as a U.S. naval buildup in the Caribbean involving eight warships, 1,200 missiles, and a nuclear submarine poised “aimed at Venezuela”.

Maduro outlined steps taken to bolster national defenses: troops have been deployed to the Colombian border and coastal areas, and a call has gone out to Venezuelans to enlist in civilian militias as part of a new “Communal Militia Combat Unit.” He characterized the U.S. deployment as “extravagant, immoral, and bloody,” likening its scale to the 1962 missile crisis against Cuba.

Diplomatically, Venezuela has convened an extraordinary meeting of foreign ministers from the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), demanding the withdrawal of U.S. military assets from regional waters. Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yván Gil condemned the U.S. narrative linking Venezuela to drug cartels as a “false pretext” for destabilization efforts, and has appealed to United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres to intervene to defuse tensions.

Meanwhile, U.S. officials confirmed that on Tuesday, American forces conducted a lethal strike on a “drug vessel” that had departed from Venezuela, killing its crew of alleged narco-terrorists, according to Secretary of State Marco Rubio. President Donald Trump later described the action in the White House as aimed at disrupting a major flow of narcotics into the United States, asserting that “we took it out” after identifying the vessel as part of a designated trafficking organization.

The White House has framed its deployment of destroyers, cruisers, and Marines as a counter-narcotics operation rather than a prelude to invasion. Yet Maduro insists it is a “regime-change” gambit, cautioning that any attack would “stain [Trump’s] hands with blood,” and emphasizing that Venezuela’s military and civilian militias stand ready to repel aggression.