Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro deployed 15,000 troops to the country’s western border this week, a move he framed as defense against alleged U.S. threats as Washington and its allies increase pressure on his regime regarding its role in global drug trafficking, Breitbart reported.
Venezuelan state media reported Tuesday that Maduro ordered the deployment of 15,000 “security personnel” to regions near the Colombian border, an operation his government asserts is aimed at combating narco-terrorist groups.
The action comes as the Trump administration intensifies efforts to disrupt cocaine trafficking in the Caribbean, much of which U.S. officials say is facilitated by Maduro’s government.
Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino López confirmed the operation, dubbed “Operation Catatumbo Lightning,” named after Venezuela’s famous lightning storms over Lake Maracaibo. He said troops would deploy across Táchira and Zulia states, covering more than 500 miles of the 1,379-mile border with Colombia.
“Today, we will reinforce with 15,000 ground forces on a front … that represents 851 kilometers [529 miles] of the 2,219 kilometers [1,379 miles] of border with Colombia,” Padrino announced. The buildup, he said, would be supported by naval fleets, drones, and 60 rapid response units already positioned in the region.
Maduro himself echoed the announcement on state television.
“Fifteen thousand well-armed, well-trained, and well-prepared men and women will go to reinforce the binational zone,” he declared, insisting that Venezuela was “free of cocaine.”
The Trump administration has rejected those claims.
“The Maduro regime is not the legitimate government of Venezuela. It is a narco-terror cartel,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters last week.
Washington has long accused Maduro and his inner circle of leading the Cartel de los Soles, a cocaine trafficking syndicate embedded in Venezuelan military.
The U.S. government has offered a $50 million bounty for Maduro’s arrest and labeled the cartel a “specially designated global terrorist” entity in July.
Intelligence reports also link the regime to Colombian terrorist groups such as the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known as FARC, and the National Liberation Army, or ELN, as well as the Lebanon-based terrorist organization Hezbollah.
In response to those threats, President Donald Trump has ordered a fleet of U.S. warships to the southern Caribbean Sea.
The deployment reportedly includes 4,000 sailors and Marines tasked with intercepting drug shipments in international waters. France, Ecuador, Argentina, and Paraguay have joined Washington in designating the Cartel de los Soles a terrorist organization, with France deploying its own naval assets in the Caribbean.
Maduro has countered with accusations that the United States is plotting a coup to topple his government. On Tuesday, he vowed his forces were on full alert against “imperialist threats from the United States and its allies on the Venezuelan extreme right.”
“There is no rest. We are deployed. Nobody better touch Venezuelan territory,” Maduro warned. “Because it is ours and we guarantee it. Every time we will move forward with more power and strength.”
Despite the regime’s show of force, recruitment efforts to bolster pro-Maduro militias drew little interest over the weekend, according to local reports. Maduro has announced a second round of recruitment drives scheduled for late August.
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