Venezuela Deploys Millions Of Fighters Over 'US Threats' To Venezuela

Venezuela Deploys Millions of Fighters Over US ‘Threats’ Venezuela Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro pledged to mobilize millions of militia members in response to the US doubling the reward for his arrest and intensifying its anti-drug operations in the Caribbean, Al Jazeera reported. Maduro said Monday that he would mobilize more than 4.5 million militia members to “ensure coverage of the entire national territory.” It’s not clear if he can hit that number, however. The militia officially counts five million members, but experts believe the real figure must be lower, as the entire population numbers only about 30 million. The plan comes in response to US actions in the neighborhood. Earlier this week, Washington deployed three US guided-missile destroyers off the coast of Venezuela as part of a broader Caribbean operation targeting narco-terrorist groups, including Mexico’s Sinaloa Cartel and Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua, according to MercoPress. The US mission also involved about 4,000 Marines, surveillance aircraft, additional warships, and at least one attack submarine. Maduro urged his supporters to recruit more workers and peasants into militias and promised to arm them with “rifles and missiles” to protect Venezuela’s sovereignty. He denounced the “extravagant, bizarre and outlandish threats” from Washington, after US President Donald Trump’s administration raised the reward for his arrest to $50 million and accused him of leading a cocaine-smuggling network known as the Cartel de los Soles without providing evidence. Washington, which did not recognize Maduro’s last two election victories, has also imposed new sanctions on his administration and the cartel he allegedly leads. Without mentioning the recent US actions specifically, Maduro has expressed gratitude for the international voices that opposed what he defined as a “rotten refrain” of threats, CBS News wrote. One such voice was that of Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, who this month rejected US allegations against Maduro, saying that her government had no evidence tying him to the drug cartel.