Venezuela has announced the deployment of 15,000 troops to its border with Colombia to combat drug trafficking, just as Washington intensifies its own anti-cartel operation in the southern Caribbean with the arrival of additional US warships.
Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello said on Monday that forces will be reinforced in Zulia and Táchira states, both key smuggling corridors along the Colombian frontier. The deployment, he added, would include aircraft, drones, and riverine patrols.
“Here, we do fight drug trafficking; here, we do fight drug cartels on all fronts,” Cabello declared, noting that Venezuelan authorities have already seized 53 tonnes of drugs in 2025. He also urged Colombian counterparts to step up their own efforts “to ensure peace along the entire axis.”
US naval buildup in the Caribbean
Meanwhile, the USS Lake Erie, a guided missile cruiser, and the USS Newport News, a nuclear-powered fast-attack submarine, are set to arrive in the southern Caribbean next week, Reuters reported.
The ships will join an amphibious squadron that includes the USS San Antonio, USS Iwo Jima, and USS Fort Lauderdale — carrying around 4,500 US service members, including 2,200 Marines. The Pentagon says the deployment is part of a broader crackdown on Latin American drug cartels.
The move comes amid escalating accusations from the Trump administration, which has repeatedly accused Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and top officials — including Cabello — of working with the Cartel de los Soles, designated by Washington as a terrorist organization.
The US recently doubled its bounty for Maduro’s capture to $50 million and raised the reward for Cabello’s arrest from $10 million to $25 million. Maduro, in turn, accuses the US of pursuing regime change, while mobilizing militias nationwide in response to external threats.
