Maduro rails at ‘unlawful’ U.S. deployment off Venezuela

President Nicolas Maduro on Friday (August 23, 2025) hit out on the U.S. deployment of three warships off the coast of Venezuela as a part of efforts to curb drug trafficking, calling the operation an “illegal” try at regime change.

U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration has stepped up the strain on Mr. Maduro, doubling its bounty to $50 million earlier this month on drug prices in opposition to the leftist strongman.

Earlier this week, a U.S. supply confirmed to AFP that three Aegis-class guided missile destroyers have been heading to worldwide waters off the South American nation. U.S. media reported that 4,000 Marines may be deployed.

“What they’re threatening to do against Venezuela — regime change, a military terrorist attack — is immoral, criminal and illegal,” Mr. Maduro informed lawmakers.

“This is a matter of peace, of international law, for Latin America and the Caribbean. Anyone who commits an act of aggression against a country in Latin America is attacking all countries,” he stated.

In 2020, throughout Mr. Trump’s first time period in workplace, Mr. Maduro and different high-ranking Venezuelan officers have been indicted in a U.S. federal courtroom on a number of prices together with collaborating in a “narco-terrorism” conspiracy.

The U.S. Justice Department accused Mr. Maduro of main a cocaine trafficking gang known as “The Cartel of the Suns” that shipped tons of of tons of narcotics into the United States over twenty years, incomes tons of of thousands and thousands of {dollars}.

Washington doesn’t acknowledge Mr. Maduro’s final two election victories.

Mr. Maduro stated this week that he can be deploying 4.5 million militia members throughout Venezuela in response to U.S. “threats,” and known as for weekend rallies decrying Washington.