Venezuela announced on Sunday a major expansion of troop deployments across its coastal regions to counter narcotics trafficking, a move that comes just days after the United States dispatched 10 additional fighter jets to Puerto Rico as part of a broader crackdown on drug cartels.

President Nicolás Maduro has ordered a significant surge in military presence in the Guajira region of Zulia state and the Paraguaná peninsula in Falcón, both identified as key trafficking corridors. Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino confirmed that troop strength would rise to 25,000 soldiers, up from the 10,000 already stationed along the Colombian border in Zulia and Táchira.

“No one is going to come and do the work for us. No one is going to step on this land and do what we’re supposed to do,” Padrino said in a video shared on social media, underscoring Venezuela’s intent to independently address the crisis.

The move follows a sharp escalation in U.S. military activity in the Caribbean under President Donald Trump, whose administration last week conducted a deadly naval strike that killed 11 people and sank a Venezuelan vessel, allegedly linked to narcotics trafficking.

Washington’s latest military deployment marks a strategic intensification of its regional posture, with Trump justifying the move by comparing overdose deaths in the U.S. to wartime casualties, casting the drug crisis as a national security emergency.

While the White House insists the operation is narrowly focused on drug interdiction, President Maduro has accused the U.S. of attempting regime change under the guise of anti-narcotics enforcement.

According to CNN, the Trump administration is weighing targeted strikes on suspected cartel-linked sites within Venezuelan territory—a step that would represent an unprecedented escalation in already fraught U.S.-Venezuelan relations.

The Venezuelan military buildup will now extend across several additional states, including:

• Nueva Esparta (Margarita Island)
• Sucre
• Delta Amacuro

These areas have increasingly been flagged by intelligence reports as active nodes in transnational drug networks.

This standoff emerges at a critical juncture for the region, with both Caracas and Washington flexing military muscle and raising concerns over sovereignty, intervention, and the limits of unilateral enforcement actions.