CARACAS: Venezuela accused the United States on Friday of waging an “undeclared war” in the Caribbean, where Washington has deployed warships and blown up alleged drug boats in recent weeks.

“It is an undeclared war, and you can already see how people, whether or not they are drug traffickers, have been executed in the Caribbean Sea.

“Executed without the right to defence,” Defence Minister Vladimir Padrino Lopez said as he reported on Venezuelan military exercises in response to the US “military threat”.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, who the United States accuses of running a drug cartel, announced late on Thursday that troops would provide residents of low-income neighbourhoods with weapons training.

Maduro, for whom Washington has issued a $50 million bounty on drug trafficking charges, accuses the Trump administration of planning an “invasion in pursuit of regime change”.

The troops will “teach all those men and women who enlisted (in Venezuela’s civilian militia) how to handle weapons systems”, the leftist strongman said on state television. The biggest US naval deployment in the Caribbean in decades and strikes on two Venezuelan boats allegedly transporting drugs, have stoked fears the United States is planning attacks on Venezuelan territory.

The United States also sent F-35 fighter jets to Puerto Rico to support its Caribbean flotilla composed of seven ships and a nuclear-powered submarine.

On Wednesday, Venezuela launched three days of military exercises on its Caribbean island of La Orchila in response to the perceived threat.

La Orchila is close to the area where the United States intercepted and held a Venezuelan fishing vessel for eight hours over the weekend.

Published in Dawn, September 20th, 2025