Venezuela deploys 25,000 troops amid rising tensions with US

Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro has ordered the deployment of 25,000 troops to reinforce the country’s borders near Colombia, as well as along the Atlantic and Caribbean coasts.

In a statement published on the president’s Telegram channel, it was specified that the mobilisation aims to “protect national sovereignty and security.”

“I have ordered the deployment of 25,000 men and women from our glorious Bolivarian National Armed Forces to strengthen rapid reaction unit operations in the peace zone with Colombia, as well as on the Caribbean and Atlantic coasts,” the statement reads.

Since the beginning of September, tensions have escalated between the United States and Venezuela. On September 3, the U.S. president announced a strike against members of the Venezuelan group Tren de Aragua, involved in drug trafficking. The Venezuelan president responded by saying that the United States had attacked the country under a fabricated pretext in order to ultimately “seize its natural resources.”

By Vugar Khalilov