DORAL, Fla. — Tensions between Venezuela and the United States are escalating.
President Donald Trump said the United States took military action against a boat leaving Venezuela on Tuesday.
The White House says the show of force in the Caribbean will help stop the flow of drugs into the United States, while the regime of Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro says the U.S. is on the cusp of starting a regional war.
“Over the last few minutes, literally, shot a boat — a drug-carrying boat, a lot of drugs in that boat, it just happened moments ago,“ Trump said during a news conference on Tuesday. ”There is more where that came from. We have a lot of drugs coming into the country. These came out of Venezuela and coming out, very heavily out of Venezuela. A lot is coming out of Venezuela.”
A spokesperson for the U.S. Navy told Local 10 News that several guided-missile destroyers, ships and more than 4,500 sailors and Marines have been dispatched to the Caribbean Sea, with an eighth ship on approach.
It’s a marvel of maritime force near the waters of Venezuela.
With weapons pointed at Venezuela, Maduro took aim at the United States and Secretary of State Marco Rubio during a news conference on Monday.
“Mr. President, Donald Trump, watch out, because Mr. Rubio wants to stain your hands with blood,” Maduro said.
Rubio dodged a question when asked by Local 10 News following an event in Coral Gables, two days after meeting with U.S. Southern Command leaders to discuss security in Latin America and the Caribbean.
The White House has previously positioned the deployment as part of the president’s crackdown on drug cartels, describing Maduro as the head of a narco-terror criminal organization.
“He has shed the blood of his people to stay in power,” said Orlando Gutierrez Boronat, a leader in South Florida’s Cuban exile community. “These statements by Maduro are just a sign of the fear he has that justice will have its day.”
Gutierrez Boronat said restoring democracy in Venezuela could stem the flow of millions seeking refuge in the United States.
“Venezuelans were not leaving Venezuela by the millions before Chavez and Maduro and their repression,” he said. “Liberation and building democracy will help Cuba and Venezuela become Cuba and Venezuela again.”
Gutierrez Boronat called the pressure on the regime “a godsend for the Venezuelan people.”
Last year, the Maduro regime claimed — without evidence — that Maduro won an election the opposition coalition said its data showed his challenger had won.
Maduro is vowing to fight back against what he views as a U.S. plan for regime change.
“I think the Maduro and the Castro regimes are criminal enterprises masquerading with a criminal ideology. They are toxic for the rest of the hemisphere,” Gutierrez Boronat said. “He is a traitor to Venezuela. So the fact that he is afraid and the fact that he is lashing out at Marco Rubio is just a sign that the balance of fear has shifted.
“Now it is not the Venezuelan people who are under fear and oppression. Now it is Maduro and his cronies who are feeling the fear, and that is a very welcome sight.”
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