Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro announced that they are ready to fight if necessary, in response to the deployment of the US fleet off the country's coast. He emphasized that Venezuela is only defending its right to peace and territorial integrity.
The editorial office reports that Maduro announced the deployment of the Armed Forces and the popular militia in 284 possible combat directions. According to him, Venezuela has a popular militia of 4.5 million people, an army of 95-150 thousand, aviation, military equipment, and a domestic drone industry created with Iran's support.
However, the country's Interior Minister, Diosdado Cabello, claimed that the 11 people killed in a US attack in the Caribbean Sea were not drug traffickers but civilians. The Pentagon, calling the Venezuelan government an “illegitimate narco-terrorist regime,” defended the operation as legal.