Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro said Tuesday he is considering declaring a national state of emergency, citing what he called growing “aggressions and threats” from the United States amid an expanded U.S. military deployment in the Caribbean.
Maduro cast the possible decree as a defensive step to protect Venezuela’s sovereignty and stability after weeks of heightened tensions with Washington.
“Our goal is that the entire nation, every citizen, has the support and protection of all forces of Venezuelan society to respond to any threat or attack against our country,” he said during a televised event.
Under Article 338 of Venezuela’s constitution, a declaration of “external national commotion” allows the government to suspend certain constitutional guarantees – though not rights such as the right to life or protections against torture – in order to address outside threats.
Such a measure can last up to 90 days and may be renewed once for an additional 90 days. By law, it must be approved by the Council of Ministers, presented to the National Assembly, and reviewed by the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court within eight days.
Vice President Delcy Rodríguez called the proposal “very pertinent in light of the threats looming over Venezuela.” The Supreme Court’s leadership pledged to ensure that any decree would “guarantee stability.” The announcement came after a government-organized march in Caracas, intended to demonstrate the willingness of the regime’s supporters to defend the nation amidst Washington’s recent naval buildup in the region.
The United States says its Caribbean operations are aimed at countering narcotics trafficking. Earlier this month, the Trump administration ordered what officials described as the largest deployment in the region in decades — including warships, F-35 fighter jets, and thousands of service members — to target transnational criminal groups and drug smuggling routes.
Caracas has denounced the deployment as a pretext for coercion and a possible attempt at regime change. The standoff has escalated since early September, when U.S. forces carried out strikes on speedboats they said were moving narcotics out of Venezuela. At least 17 people were killed in the operations. Trump administration officials described them as “narcoterrorists,” while human rights groups condemned the killings as extrajudicial.
Speaking at the United Nations on Tuesday, President Trump warned that the campaign was only beginning, accusing Maduro and top officials of running a large-scale drug cartel and of deliberately sending criminals into the United States to destabilize communities.
“They’re the enemies of all humanity,” Trump said, claiming maritime drug shipments from Venezuela had dropped sharply after the U.S. military deployment. “Venezuelans are not taking big loads of drugs in boats anymore. We’ve virtually stopped drugs coming into our country by sea.” He described maritime narcotics – what he called “water drugs” – as killers responsible for “hundreds of thousands of” American deaths.
Trump also emphasized his administration’s crackdown on violent gangs, saying he has designated several cartels as foreign terrorist organizations. He singled out MS-13 and Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua, calling the latter “probably the worst gang anywhere in the world.”
“To every terrorist thug smuggling poisonous drugs into the United States of America, please be warned that we will blow you out of existence,” he said. “That’s what we’re doing. We have no choice.”
The sharp rhetoric came days after the White House dismissed a Sept. 6 letter from Maduro offering direct talks. The Venezuelan leader denied involvement in drug trafficking and accused Washington of spreading disinformation to justify armed conflict.
“We have seen this letter. Frankly, I think there were a lot of lies repeated by Maduro in that letter, and the administration’s position on Venezuela has not changed,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Monday. “We view the Maduro regime as illegitimate, and the President has clearly shown that he’s willing to use any and all means necessary to stop the illegal trafficking of deadly drugs from the Venezuelan regime into the United States.”
In the letter, released publicly over the weekend, Maduro argued that only a small portion of Colombia’s cocaine transits through Venezuela and that authorities in his country intercept most of it. He described the U.S. accusations as “the most egregious instance of disinformation against our nation” and invited U.S. envoy Richard Grenell to open a direct channel of communication.
“President, I hope that together we can defeat the falsehoods that have sullied our relationship, which must be historic and peaceful,” Maduro wrote.
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