VENEZUELA President
Nicolás Maduro on Monday said he would deploy 4.5 million militia members in
response to "outlandish threats" by the United States after
Washington raised the bounty for his arrest to $50 million and launched
anti-drug operations in the Caribbean.
"This week,
I will activate a special plan with more than 4.5 million militiamen to ensure
coverage of the entire national territory militias that are prepared,
activated and armed," Maduro announced on state television.
Official figures
say the Venezuelan militia, founded by Maduro's predecessor Hugo Chavez,
contains about 5 million people though the actual number is believed to be
smaller.
A U.S. official
briefed on the planning told the Associated Press that he USS Gravely, the USS
Jason Dunham and the USS Sampson are expected to arrive soon. The official, who
was not authorized to comment about military planning, told the AP the vessels
would be deployed "over the course of several months."
Although he did
not mention the recent U.S. actions specifically, Maduro thanked those who
expressed their support in the face of what he called "rotten
refrain" of threats.
Maduro called on
his government's political base to move forward with the formation of peasant
and worker militias "in all industries."
"Rifles and
missiles for the peasant force! To defend the territory, sovereignty, and peace
of Venezuela," declared Maduro.
Last September,
the U.S. seized a plane belonging to Maduro and brought it to the U.S., with
the Justice Department claiming the jet was exported from Florida in violation
of U.S. sanctions.
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