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Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro has said that the U.S. deployment of warships to the Caribbean Sea constitutes an ‘aggression’ against his country.
He made the remarks in an interview with the local public broadcaster, according to TASS news agency.
Maduro said that while international media "insist that there are tensions between Venezuela and the United States, the right word is aggression, not tensions."
He accused the U.S. of seeking to make "a peaceful nation tremble."
"The people really are trembling, but with outrage, anger, and patriotism," the president stressed. He added that "the people and the National Bolivarian Armed Forces will protect Venezuela’s territorial integrity, peace and future."
The Venezuelan leader welcomed a statement by the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), which had expressed "serious concern about the deployment of US warships to the southern part of the Caribbean Sea in violation of the Zone of Peace declared in the region in 2014."
Reuters reported earlier that three US missile destroyers (USS Gravely, USS Jason Dunham and USS Sampson) had been deployed near Venezuela as part of an effort to address threats from Latin American drug cartels. Other reports mentioned the deployment of the USS Newport News submarine, the USS Lake Erie missile cruiser, landing ships and 4,500 troops.
Last week the U.S. military killed 11 people in a strike on a vessel from Venezuela allegedly carrying illegal narcotics.