Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro has announced the mass mobilization of more than 4.5 million militia members across the country. The dramatic move comes in response to a new wave of U.S. pressure, including the deployment of Navy destroyers and Marines to the Caribbean and the doubling of the American bounty on Maduro’s head.

“This week, I will activate a special plan with more than 4.5 million militiamen to ensure coverage of the entire national territory,” Maduro declared on state television, flanked by senior military officials. “Militias that are prepared, activated, and armed.” He added that the goal is to defend Venezuela’s sovereignty against what he called the “extravagant, bizarre, and outlandish threats” of the United States.

Who is Nicolás Maduro

Maduro has been the leader of Venezuela since 2013, succeeding Hugo Chávez. He inherited both Chávez’s political base and the country’s worsening economic crisis. Over the past decade, Maduro has faced accusations of consolidating power, silencing opponents, and overseeing fraudulent elections. Washington has consistently refused to recognize him as Venezuela’s legitimate president.

In July 2024, Venezuela’s National Electoral Council declared Maduro the winner of another presidential election. The Biden administration rejected those results, just as the Trump administration had done with the 2018 election. The United States instead recognized opposition figure Edmundo González as the rightful president.

Maduro’s government has also been accused of turning Venezuela into a narco-state. U.S. prosecutors allege he leads the Cartel de los Soles, a drug trafficking network run by senior Venezuelan officials. Earlier this month, the Trump administration doubled the reward for Maduro’s capture, raising it from $25 million to $50 million. U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said Maduro has worked “with Latin American gangs and cartel organizations.”

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt reinforced this position, stating, “The Maduro regime is not the legitimate government of Venezuela; it is a narco terror cartel. And Maduro, it is the view of this administration, is not a legitimate president. He is a fugitive head of this cartel who has been indicted in the United States for trafficking drugs into the country.”

A U.S. Naval Build-Up

The United States has matched its rhetoric with force. Officials confirmed that three Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyers, the USS Gravely, USS Jason Dunham, and USS Sampson, are deploying to the southern Caribbean. A U.S. defense official explained the operation will continue “over the course of several months.”

This deployment involves more than warships. Reports say the mission includes about 4,000 sailors and Marines, P-8 reconnaissance aircraft, an attack submarine, and other support vessels. A senior official told the Associated Press that the assets will conduct surveillance and gather intelligence, but they could also serve as platforms for “targeted strikes” if President Trump authorizes them.

The White House has presented the deployment as part of a crackdown on Latin American drug cartels. “President Trump has been very clear and consistent,” Leavitt said. “He’s prepared to use every element of American power to stop drugs from flooding into our country and to bring those responsible to justice.” Senator Marco Rubio added, “Drugs are a threat to the national security of the United States. There are groups that are freely operating in international waters, exporting poison to the United States, that is killing and destroying communities.”

Venezuela’s Countermove

Maduro has responded by putting his faith in the Bolivarian National Militia, a force founded by Hugo Chávez in 2007 and later recognized as the fifth branch of Venezuela’s armed forces. The government claims nearly 5 million Venezuelans are enrolled, though independent observers believe the real number is smaller.

“The Bolivarian National Militia is the people in arms, it is the genuine expression of civic-military union,” Maduro said when he incorporated the militia into the armed forces in 2019. On Monday, he revived this message, calling for militias to be expanded to rural and industrial sectors. “Rifles and missiles for the peasant force! Rifles and missiles for the working class!” he declared.

Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello insisted that Venezuela is not only prepared on land but also in the surrounding seas. “We are also deployed throughout the Caribbean,” Cabello said. “Our sea, which is Venezuelan territory.”

Maduro’s allies describe this mobilization as a defense of ordinary people. Nahum Fernández, head of government in Caracas, stated, “It’s not about Maduro, it’s about the ordinary people, the people in the neighborhoods, the communities. This country belongs to Venezuelans; in the face of any threat, the Venezuelan people will not remain silent.”

Disputed Claims About Drug Trafficking

The U.S. portrays Venezuela as a central hub in global cocaine trafficking, but Venezuelan officials and some international reports dispute this. Foreign Minister Yván Gil dismissed U.S. accusations as “a sign of desperation,” saying they reveal Washington’s “lack of credibility and the failure of its policies in the region.” He also pointed out that Venezuela expelled the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency in 2005, accusing it of corruption.

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime reports that Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru remain the epicenters of cocaine production. According to UNODC data, only about five percent of Colombian drugs pass through Venezuela, and the country itself does not cultivate coca or process cocaine. Still, the Trump administration insists Maduro’s government is a “narco-terror cartel,” and the $50 million bounty underlines Washington’s determination to remove him.

A Growing Confrontation

The current standoff is the latest in a long series of confrontations between Caracas and Washington. In 2017, President Trump openly said the U.S. had “many options for Venezuela, including a possible military option.” In 2019, Washington supported opposition leader Juan Guaidó when he declared himself interim president, culminating in a failed uprising. And in 2020, the U.S. launched an “enhanced counternarcotics operation” near Venezuelan shores that many saw as a veiled threat of intervention.

Now, with American destroyers approaching Venezuela’s coastline and millions of Venezuelan militia members mobilizing “sector by sector,” both sides appear locked in a dangerous cycle of escalation.

Maduro warned his supporters that Venezuela will not yield. “The first to step forward in support of this working-class president were the military of this homeland, with their rifles, missiles, tanks, and planes,” he said. Calling the U.S. presence a “rotting rerun,” he vowed that Venezuela would defend “its seas, its skies, and its land in the face of the strange and unprecedented threat posed by a declining empire.