Description: The US has announced its plans to dispatch up to three US Aegis guided missile destroyers off the coast of Venezuela in the next couple of days and additional four thousand sailors and Marines as well as several P – 8 spy planes and an attack submarine. White House spokesperson, Karoline Leavitt, stated that the Trump administration would use every resource of American military and security power to ensure the cessation of drug proliferation in the country and neutralize the threat from drug cartels. Venezuelan President, Nicolas Maduro, has denounced the US claims and vowed to assemble up to four and a half million militiamen in order to counter the US’ plans to destabilize the country. The announcement arrives on the back of heightened bilateral tensions between the two countries and after the US issued a $50 million reward for Maduro’s arrest, whose legitimacy as President of Venezuela has been largely contested as he was accused of collusion with Venezuela’s drug cartels.
Impact: The US deployment of significant military and naval assets off the coast of Venezuela under the pretext of countering drug cartel operations, substantially endangers the regional security situation and threatens larger regional destabilization. Venezuela has represented a consistent target of US foreign policy over the country’s vast oil reserves potential and its close ties with geopolitical adversaries such as Russia, China and Iran. Maduro has been a vocal critic of the US and has refused to allow the entry of private business conglomerates in the energy industry into the country while expanding ties with partners such as Russia and China. The mobilization of Venezuela’s militias would elevate the risk level of the country’s internal stability as the civilian reservist population would be substantially armed which could result in internal armed confrontations, potentially inciting a domestic security crisis.