Venezuela increases troops by more than 5,500 amid US advances

The Venezuelan army reportedly swore in 5,600 new troops on Saturday in direct response to the United States ramping up military pressure in the Caribbean Sea. Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro called for a stepping-up of Venezuela's military recruitment after the United States deployed a fleet of warships – including the world's largest aircraft carrier – in the Caribbean Sea under the guise of ‘fighting drug trafficking'. American forces have carried out deadly strikes on at least 20 vessels near Venezuela and killed more than 80 people in the last four months.

The United States have accused Maduro of leading the Cartel of the Suns, which it declared a terrorist organization last month. Maduro maintains that the US aims to overthrow his government and seize the country's oil reserves. In 2024, Nicolas Maduro was defeated in the polls, but refused to concede power, instead claiming that he had won the election – a claim disproven by his own government's voting technology. There is a motive if Donald Trump does indeed want to oust Maduro. Most Western countries are not in support of Maduro's election fraud, with international support for Maduro's government coming from China, Russia, Iran, Turkey, Syria, and Cuba.

Venezuelan military power

Venezuela has the world's 50^th most powerful military according to GFP, with approximately 200,00 soldiers, and an additional 200,000 police officers. Over the last several weeks, the Trump administration has built up a fleet of warships near Venezuela, including the largest U.S. aircraft carrier – the USS Gerald R. Ford – as American forces continue to attack naval vessels suspected of drug trafficking. Colonel Gabriel Alejandro Rendon Vilchez told the press on Sunday that “Under no circumstances will we allow an invasion by an imperialist force,” referring to the United States.

Four months of naval air strikes

The US began initiating airstrikes on Venezuelan ships in the Caribbean Sea in September, under the guise of fighting narco-terrorism. Donald Trump, backed by Hegseth, outlined his mission to battle ‘maritime drug trafficking' in Latin America after the first strike. That first strike came on September 2, when an American military vessel sank a 39-foot speedboat filled with “a considerable amount of cargo.” This initial strike was one of the more legitimate, with the vessel hailing from a known trafficking centre, and multiple sources supporting the US's accusations of it being a criminal vessel. 11 people were killed in the first strike, according to Trump, all of them members of the gang Tren de Aragua.

Over the next six weeks, Trump carried out another four strikes, killing 16. There were drugs recovered in only one of the strikes. Venezuela has claimed that at least one of the boats attacked was a fishing vessel. Additionally, at least two of the victims have been confirmed as Colombian citizens without any attachment to the country of Venezuela, nor its organized crime groups. “These cartels are the Al Qaeda of the Western Hemisphere, using violence, murder and terrorism to impose their will, threaten our national security and poison our people,” Hegseth wrote.

Entering murky waters

It is unclear how the US will move forward with its fleet of ships in the Caribbean, but according to Trump on December 3, “[we are] going to start doing strikes on land, too, you know, the land is much easier, much easier,” During a speech Saturday at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth claimed that Donald Trump could use force “as he see's fit” in regards to the deadly airstrikes on ‘cartel' vessels. In the same speech, Hegseth seemed to threaten the globe, stating, “If you're working for a designated terrorist organization and you bring drugs to this country in a boat, we will find you, and we will sink you. Let there be no doubt about it. President Trump can and will take decisive military action as he sees fit to defend our nation's interests. Let no country on earth doubt that for a moment.”

Human rights experts have claimed that Trump's airstrikes are “unlawful under the law of the sea,” as the vessels were in international waters and posed no immediate violent threat to the US,” and that “Labelling everyone a terrorist does not make them a lawful target and enables states to side-step international law.” It's been confirmed that at least three of the vessels sunk were indeed ships being used by drug cartels, but at least three of them were not.