By: Staff Writer
August 19, 2025
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, in response to the Donald Trump administration sending 4,000 troops to the Southern Caribbean in what the US claims is to combat drug trafficking, in turn is mobilising 4.5 million militia personnel.
The US military is deploying more than 4,000 Marines and sailors to the waters around Latin America and the Caribbean as part of a ramped-up effort to combat drug cartels, two US defense officials told the media last week — a dramatic show of force that will give the President Trump a broad range of military options should he want to target drug cartels.
However, Maduro said he would deploy 4.5 million militia members in response to “outlandish threats” by the United States after Washington raised the bounty for his arrest to $50 million and launched anti-drug operations in the Caribbean.
“This week, I will activate a special plan with more than 4.5 million militiamen to ensure coverage of the entire national territory — militias that are prepared, activated and armed,” Maduro announced on state television.
Official figures say the Venezuelan militia, founded by Maduro’s predecessor Hugo Chavez, contains about 5 million people — though the actual number is believed to be smaller.
Maduro and several of his top allies have been indicted by U.S. prosecutors for allegedly turning Venezuela into a narco-state through the so-called “Cartel of the Suns.”
Maduro has dismissed the charges as a “rotting rerun” aimed at justifying foreign intervention. “This week I’m launching a special plan to ensure coverage by more than 4.5 million prepared, activated, and armed militia members across the national territory,” Maduro declared Monday during a televised event, flanked by senior military commanders. He said the move is needed to counter what he described as the “extravagant, bizarre and outlandish threats” from the United States.
Washington, which does not recognize Maduro’s past two election victories, accuses the Venezuelan of leading a cocaine trafficking gang called Cartel de los Soles. The Trump administration announced sanctions against the group and Maduro’s administration last month.