Maduro activates Bolivarian National Militia in response to US “threats”, vowing to defend the country’s sovereignty and independence.President Nicolás Maduro announced on Monday, August 18, that he is activating “over 4.5 million militia members across the entire national territory” of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, in response to the US deployment of three Navy guided-missile destroyers and 4,000 military personnel to the Caribbean. The White House has described the deployment as an anti-drug trafficking operation in the region, while some analysts have called it a new threat against Venezuela – the country with the largest oil reserves in the world.
The US military deployment comes after Washington raised its bounty on the Venezuelan president from USD 25 million to USD 50 million, alleging links to drug cartels.
The “extravagant, bizarre, and outlandish threats” of the United States have been firmly rejected by the Venezuelan government.
Minister of Foreign Affairs Yván Gil described the accusations as a sign of desperation, revealing Washington’s “lack of credibility and the failure of its policies in the region”. He also pointed out that Venezuela has made major gains against drug trafficking after expelling the United States’ Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) – who many Venezuelans call “the planet’s chief drug traffickers” – from the country in 2005.
No US agency or international body has produced concrete evidence of drug production and distribution being concentrated in Venezuela or linked to Maduro. In fact, available global drug data makes almost no mention of the Caribbean nation or the alleged “Cartel of Suns” at all. According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the epicenter of activity is in Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru, with the US identified as the main destination for distribution, recording the highest level of drug consumption in the world.
UNODC data reports that only 5% of Colombian drugs transit through Venezuela, and that the country is free of coca leaf cultivation, and marijuana and cocaine processing. The Trump administration, on the other hand, has maintained its position that the Venezuelan government is a “narco-terror cartel”.
Venezuela mobilizes as the US bares its teethLast week, mass protests across Venezuela denounced the “interventionist policies of the US government” following the bounty increase o
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