Venezuela’s defense minister has ordered drone and naval patrols along the Venezuelan coast in response to the US deploying a group of warships to the Southern Caribbean.
According to Al Jazeera, Venezuelan Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino announced a “significant” deployment of drones and warships, including “larger vessels further north in our territorial waters.”
Last week, the US deployed three Navy destroyers to waters near Venezuela’s coast, and on Monday, Reuters reported that the US was also sending a Navy cruiser and a nuclear-powered fast attack submarine to the region.
The official reason for the deployment is to combat drug cartels, but there are signs the US may be pushing for another regime change effort in Venezuela. The US claims Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro is a cartel leader, but has not provided any evidence for the accusation.
The US says that Maduro is the leader of Cartel de los Soles, a term used to describe a network of Venezuelan government and military officials allegedly involved in drug trafficking, but it does not actually exist as an organization with a leadership structure. That hasn’t stopped the US from labeling the group a terrorist organization and declaring Maduro its leader.
The US also recently increased the bounty on Maduro’s head to $50 million. In response to the pressure, Maduro has mobilized a pro-government militia that the Venezuelan government says has millions of members and deployed troops to the border of Colombia, a major non-NATO ally of the US, where about 90% of the cocaine found in the US is produced.
In comments on Monday, Maduro insisted that, unlike Colombia, Venezuela is “free of coca leaf crops and free of cocaine production.”
