Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro accused the United States on Friday of “inventing a war” against his country, denouncing recent U.S. military deployments in the Caribbean officially aimed at combating drug trafficking.
“They are inventing a new eternal war. They promised never to go to war again, and now they are inventing one that we will avoid,” Maduro said in a nationally broadcast address on radio and television.
Since early September, Washington has conducted a campaign of airstrikes targeting vessels allegedly linked to drug trafficking, primarily in Caribbean waters. The United States has deployed naval ships and fighter jets for the operations and announced on Friday the deployment of the USS Gerald R. Ford, the world’s largest aircraft carrier.
The U.S. accuses Maduro of leading a vast drug trafficking organization, while Caracas dismisses the claim as a pretext to overthrow the Venezuelan president and seize the country’s oil resources.
“The United States is inventing an extravagant, vulgar, criminal, and completely false story,” Maduro declared. He added that Venezuela “is a peaceful nation with no coca leaf or cocaine production” and vowed to eliminate the remaining 5% of drug trafficking passing through the country from neighboring Colombia.
According to an AFP tally, Washington has carried out at least ten known airstrikes—mostly in the Caribbean and one in the Pacific—resulting in at least 43 deaths.