Venezuela Announces Deployment of Thousands of Troops to Colombia Border Amid U.S. Tensions

Diosdado Cabello, vice president of Venezuela's ruling party and Minister of Interior, confirmed on Monday that 15,000 troops will be deployed along the border with Colombia amid heightened tensions with the United States and ongoing disputes about the country's role in drug-trafficking in the region.

Cabello said the operation involves drones, aircraft, river patrols, and rapid-response units, which will initially focus on border states Zulia and Táchira states in what he called "Zona de Paz #1" ("Peace Zone #1). He framed the deployment as an effort to protect sovereignty and disrupt narcotrafficking routes. "Those who try to transport drugs through Venezuela will receive a forceful response," he stated.

Cabello also insisted that Venezuela accounts for about 5% of global trafficking flows, citing a United Nations report, and rejected claims that the government is linked to cartels, as the Trump administration is claiming. On Thursday, the head of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Terry Cole, accused Venezuela of collaborating with Colombian guerrilla groups to ship "record amounts of cocaine" to Mexican cartels trafficking into the United States. Officials are also claiming this merits the decision to send troops off its coast.

During the same press conference, Cabello repeated accusations that opposition leader María Corina Machado maintains ties with Colombian and Mexican criminal groups, including the Jalisco cartel, through political allies such as former Colombian presidents Álvaro Uribe and Iván Duque. "It is her who has contact with narcotraffickers, not the government," Cabell said.

The announcements follow President Nicolás Maduro's call last week for millions of Venezuelans to join "combat ranks" to defend national sovereignty after the U.S. deployed three Navy destroyers along with an amphibious squadron off the coast of the South American nation, a move Maduro has characterized as a prelude to invasion. Thousands of people reportedly signed up during the weekend.

Colombian president Gustavo Petro has been publicly weighing on the deployment of U.S. warships, saying on Wednesday that "gringos are mad if they think that invading Venezuela will solve their problems." "They are dragging Venezuela into a Syria-like situation, with the problem that they are dragging Colombia too," he added. "I told Trump through his emissaries that it would be the worst mistake."