Venezuela On 18 August 2025, Maduro said the US "has gone mad and has renewed its threats to Venezuela's peace and tranquility" and "announced the planned deployment of more than 4.5 million militia members" around Venezuela. The
BBC reported that many of the recently mobilized militia are "mostly made up of volunteers from poor communities, although public sector workers have reported being pressured into joining them as well." On 25 August, Maduro "said 15,000 'well armed and trained' men had been deployed to states near the Colombian border," per
The Economist. Maduro stated that "Venezuela is confronting the biggest threat that has been seen on our continent in the last 100 years." Padrino López announced Operation Sovereign Caribbean 200 () would take place on
La Orchila Island aiming "to strengthen defensive capabilities and protect national sovereignty" in direct response to "the threatening and vulgar deployment of U.S. ships in the Caribbean". Following another airstrike, on 15 October 2025, Maduro declared new military exercises in Caracas shantytowns and nearby states. On 22 October, Maduro warned the US that the National Bolivarian Armed Forces had more than 5,000 Russian-made
Igla-S man-portable surface-to-air-missile systems in "... key anti-aircraft defense positions to guarantee peace, stability, and tranquility". Padrino Lopez responded to the expansion after the seizure of
Skipper, saying on 12 December: "We've been watching ... don't be mistaken. We're ready to defend this country. You're not going to intimidate us." After USS
Gravely arrived in Trinidad and Tobago on 26 October, Venezuela condemned that country's joint drills with the US, referring to them as a "military provocation", Vice President
Delcy Rodríguez claimed without evidence that Venezuela had captured a group of mercenaries "with direct information of the American intelligence agency" whose goal was to carry out a
false flag attack in the region. Minister of the Interior
Diosdado Cabello said on 27 October the captured cell was four members "financed by the CIA" who had plans to blame Venezuela for an attack on the
Gravely. Government officials announced in late October that surveillance cameras would be deployed at a large scale, and VenApp, an application used during the
2024 Venezuelan political crisis to enable citizens to report on each other's activities, would be reactivated to allow reporting to authorities of "everything they see and everything they hear, 24 hours a day". Venezuelan opposition leader
María Corina Machado said the deployment encouraged "tens and tens of thousands" of Venezuelans to join an underground movement aiming to overthrow Maduro. Machado said that the
2024 Venezuelan presidential election gave a mandate for
regime change, though she said that regime change was the responsibility of Venezuelans rather than of the US.
Latin America and Caribbean Gustavo Petro, President of
Colombia, initially suggested that any attack on Venezuela would equate to an attack on Latin America and the Caribbean, and thus Colombia's armed forces could support Venezuela; he later moderated his position. Colombia convened an extraordinary virtual meeting of the
Community of Latin American and Caribbean States in September 2025, which concluded with an expression of "deep concern" over foreign intervention in the region. Over Guatemala's objection that procedures were not followed, the group issued a statement saying the region must remain a "Zone of Peace" based on "... the prohibition of the threat or use of force, the peaceful settlement of disputes, the promotion of dialogue and multilateralism, unrestricted respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity, non-interference in the internal affairs of States, and the inalienable right of peoples to self-determination." In August, when the initial three ships were deployed, Prime Minister of
Trinidad and Tobago Kamla Persad-Bissessar offered the US military access to her nation for the US to protect Guyana amid the
Guyana–Venezuela crisis. Maduro responded that Bisessar's offer was tantamount to declaring war on Venezuela, and threatened both countries with retaliation if Trinidad went through with its offer. Bisessar later praised the deployment and the 2 September strike, saying "the US military should kill [all drug traffickers] violently". The deployment was endorsed by the government of
Guyana, two-thirds of its territory
being claimed by Venezuela, with Guyana's vice president and former president
Bharrat Jagdeo telling
The Financial Times "You cannot trust Maduro." The Commander of the
Cayman Islands Coast Guard, Robert Scotland, stated that the US strikes would "send a very clear message to those entities who have been designated as narco-terrorists, and should serve as a strong deterrent to anyone who seeks to engage in the illicit trafficking of drugs and firearms within our region". The Office of the
Cayman Island's Governor stated that the British government "recognizes the importance of regional security and is committed to providing advice and capacity building to our Cayman law-enforcement partners", highlighted the mutual defense alliance between the British and American governments, and emphasized organized crime as a common threat. The United States maintains two
Forward Operating Locations (FOL) on the Dutch territories of
Aruba and
Curaçao, stemming from a 2000 treaty. In response to escalating tensions between Venezuela and the US, the Dutch have taken a neutral position, but say treaties must be honored. Dutch Defense Minister
Ruben Brekelmans stated that the treaty "permits flights from Curaçao solely for surveillance, monitoring, and the detection of drug shipments. This consent applies only to unarmed flights". According to the
Curacao Chronicle, the minister indicated that the approximate 1,000 soldiers in the
Dutch Antilles, as well as the
Dutch Caribbean Coast Guard and accompanying aircraft, could be used "if the situation escalates". On 19 September, Prime Minister
Gilmar Pisas of Curaçao stated it would renew its treaty for the Curaçao-based FOL until at least 2 November 2026. The US expressed interest in establishing a temporary military radar base in Grenada in October. Critics urged Prime Minister
Dickon Mitchell to deny the request, as they feared that the US strikes were a pretext for war with Venezuela, a nation that they say "has not done ... anything" to Grenada. The following week Admiral
Alvin Holsey was denied a similar request to
Antigua and Barbuda. The Grenadian government—working with CARICOM—later stated that a decision would be deferred, and in November Mitchell said that there was a non-disclosed deadline for approval of the radar station. In December 2025, Argentina asked the
International Criminal Court (ICC) to activate an
arrest warrant against Maduro, to which the Venezuelan government responded by accusing Argentina of "presenting itself as a false human rights defender", citing Argentina's support of Israel at the ICC. Chilean President-elect
José Antonio Kast said during a visit to Argentina and meeting with Milei that he "supports any situation that ends a dictatorship" and that an intervention in Venezuela "would solve a gigantic problem for us and all of Latin America, for all of South America".
Other featuring banners opposing US "militarization of the Caribbean", 3 January 2026 According to
Pino Arlacchi, the former head of the
UN Office on Drugs and Crime, the portrayal of Venezuela as a "drug state" is a "geopolitically motivated smear campaign" by the US government; he refers to the
World Drug Report 2025 and his own experience, according to which the Venezuelan government's cooperation in the fight against drug trafficking is among the best in South America. According to Arlacchi, the US has taken an interest in
Venezuelan oil reserves, which are among the largest in the world. The
International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) in the Americas demands an immediate cessation of aggression against Venezuela. The U.S. government's instrumentalisation of the "fight against drugs" conveys a disproportionate use of force and sets a dangerous precedent. Russia and China reiterated their condemnation of US actions against Venezuela at an emergency UN Security Council meeting on 23 December. Russia's Foreign Ministry called the deployment "excessive military force" and spokesperson
Maria Zakharova stated that Russia "confirms our firm support for the Venezuelan leadership in defending its national sovereignty". On 19 November 2025,
Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson
Mao Ning said that China opposes "any interference in Venezuela's internal affairs under any pretext" and called on the United States to "choose a course of action conducive to peace and stability". On 25 November, while sending a congratulatory message to President Maduro,
CCP General Secretary Xi Jinping stated that China supports Venezuela in "safeguarding its sovereignty and national security, the dignity of the nation, and social stability" and "resolutely opposes the meddling of external forces in Venezuela's internal affairs under any pretext". Iran said that US military action in the Caribbean was provocative, destabilizing, and a threat to regional and global peace. Several Iranian officials, including Foreign Ministry spokesman
Esmaeil Baghaei, stated that US military actions such as attacks on Venezuelan ships violated the
United Nations Charter and international law. Iran has also turned to the
UN Security Council and the
UN Secretary-General to act quickly. == Analysis ==