The US has deployed two additional warships to the South Caribbean Sea, in the waters near Venezuela. The Trump administration says the move is part of its efforts to target cartels. Venezuela has responded by mobilizing millions of troops and deploying some near the border with US ally Colombia.
Reuters reported on Monday that the US will move a guided missile cruiser and a nuclear-powered fast attack submarine to the South Caribbean. Early this month, the Pentagon deployed three guided missile destroyers, an attack submarine, and spy planes to the region.
The sources say the military buildup is to target cartels that are designated as terror organizations by the US. The State Department claims the Venezuelan government is operated by one of the terror cartels, and President Maduro is the leader of the Cartel de los Soles.
However, Cartel de los Soles may not exist, and Maduro is unlikely to be the leader of the crime organization. The cartel operates more like a loose-knit partnership of corrupt mid-level officials, opportunistic soldiers, and organized criminals – an arrangement tolerated, but not orchestrated, by the central government in Caracas.
Maduro has interpreted the deployment of warships as preparation for a war in Venezuela. He has ordered the mobilization of 4.5 million militia troops. “This week I will activate a special plan to guarantee coverage with more than 4.5 million militia members throughout the national territory, militias trained, activated, and armed,” he said. “We defend our seas, our skies, and our lands. We liberated them. We guard and patrol them. No empire will touch the sacred soil of Venezuela, nor should it touch the sacred soil of South America.”
Additionally, Maduro has ordered 15,000 troops to Venezuela’s border with Colombia. Bogota is a major non-NATO US ally. Caracas said the soldiers would crack down on drug traffickers. “Here, we do fight drug trafficking; here, we do fight drug cartels on all fronts,” Venezuelan Minister of the Popular Power for Interior Diosdado Cabello said.
