Maduro says mobilizing millions of militia after US 'threats'
"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.
Venezuela's total population is around 30 million.
Maduro lambasted "the renewal of extravagant, bizarre, and outlandish threats" from the United States.
The administration of US President Donald Trump earlier this month doubled its bounty to $50 million for the arrest of Maduro, who faces drug trafficking charges.
Washington, which does not recognize Maduro's past two election victories, accuses the Venezuelan of leading a cocaine trafficking gang called Cartel de los Soles. The Trump administration announced sanctions against the group and Maduro's administration last month.
The US military has also reportedly deployed several vessels to the southern Caribbean, as part of Trump's crackdown on Latin American drug cartels.
"We are also deployed throughout the Caribbean...in our sea, our property, Venezuelan territory," Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello said.
Although he did not mention the recent US 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."
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Maverick
2 hours ago
- Daily Maverick
Scores of South Africans retrenched by NGO processing Trump's Afrikaner ‘refugees'
The organisation that aims to bring Kenyan workers to South Africa to process Afrikaner 'refugees' bound for the US laid off more than 100 South Africans last year. Church World Service (CWS), the organisation tasked by the US State Department with processing Afrikaner 'refugees' for resettlement in the USA, retrenched about 100 workers in Pretoria in June last year. CWS is now applying for 'volunteer' visas from the Department of Home Affairs for about 30 Kenyan workers to come to South Africa to work on the Afrikaner resettlement project — raising the question of why it is not attempting instead to re-employ the locals it made redundant last year. Daily Maverick understands that the staffers, most of whom were South Africans, were retrenched when CWS closed its Resettlement Support Centre sub-office in Pretoria at the end of June 2024. CWS did not respond to Daily Maverick's repeated requests for comment. Office was in place from 2015 to 2024 'A new office in Pretoria, South Africa, enhances refugee support and programs to cover eight countries,' stated the CWS annual report in 2015. 'Working with the U.S. Department of State, we continue to increase the number of refugee cases in process each year, serving more than 40 countries in sub-Saharan Africa.' An old job ad confirmed that the office was based in Pretoria, and stated that it was tasked with 'the preparation of refugee case files for adjudication by US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) officers, as well as the out-processing and cultural orientation of all approved cases'. The office's address was listed elsewhere as occupying premises on Fehrsen Street in Brooklyn, Pretoria. Daily Maverick understands that staff were informed midway through last year that the volumes of refugees being processed from sub-Saharan Africa were no longer high enough to warrant a permanent office presence in South Africa. That was, of course, when President Donald Trump's Afrikaner 'refugee' plan was not yet even a glimmer on the horizon. Tens of thousands of Afrikaners to be brought over Now, CWS finds itself in need of staff numbers to process the Afrikaner 'refugees' to be resettled — and a Reuters exclusive from last week makes it clear why it would need as many as 30 workers for the task. Reuters, through interviews with US officials, has determined that the Trump administration ultimately aims to bring potentially 30,000 Afrikaners for resettlement in the US. As far as is publicly known, only two groups of Afrikaner 'refugees' have thus far left for the US, with numbers probably not totalling more than 100. This means that the scale of the task ahead for CWS is considerable. Reuters also reported that the Trump administration looked set to admit only 40,000 refugees in total for the year ahead — meaning that fully 75% of the available US refugee spots would be reserved for Afrikaners. This news comes at a time when the US State Department has announced a stop to all visitor visas for individuals from Gaza — which had previously been used for emergency purposes to treat injured children — on the grounds that they could be used by Palestinian refugees. Afrikaner 'refugees' facing difficulties As Daily Maverick has reported, the Afrikaner 'refugees' in the first two resettlement groups have not always found the grass on the other side to be as green as they may have hoped. The Reuters exclusive fleshed out the picture, pointing out that after taking office, Trump slashed refugee benefits. Refugees had been eligible for cash and healthcare assistance for one year, but under Trump this has been reduced to four months. Reuters reported on an email sent by one Afrikaner family to the Department of Health and Human Services, which is responsible for the refugee programme on US soil. The family said they had found it impossible to secure a job without being issued a social security number, and that they had already spent $4,000 (more than R70,000) on food, transport and communications. Adults expected to take low-level menial jobs US public broadcaster NPR previously had sight of the documents given to the Afrikaner 'refugees' upon arrival. In it, they were told: 'You are expected to support yourself quickly in finding work.' It continued: 'Adults are expected to accept entry level employment in fields like warehousing, manufacturing, and customer service. You can work toward higher level employment over time.' DM
eNCA
5 hours ago
- eNCA
Maduro says mobilizing millions of militia after US 'threats'
Venezuela's Nicolas Maduro on Monday said he would deploy 4.5 million militia members in response to US "threats," after Washington raised the bounty for his arrest 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. Venezuela's total population is around 30 million. Maduro lambasted "the renewal of extravagant, bizarre, and outlandish threats" from the United States. The administration of US President Donald Trump earlier this month doubled its bounty to $50 million for the arrest of Maduro, who faces drug trafficking charges. Washington, which does not recognize Maduro's past two election victories, accuses the Venezuelan of leading a cocaine trafficking gang called Cartel de los Soles. The Trump administration announced sanctions against the group and Maduro's administration last month. The US military has also reportedly deployed several vessels to the southern Caribbean, as part of Trump's crackdown on Latin American drug cartels. "We are also deployed throughout the our sea, our property, Venezuelan territory," Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello said. Although he did not mention the recent US 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."
Eyewitness News
13 hours ago
- Eyewitness News
Zelensky says Russia must end war, after Trump pressures Ukraine
WASHINGTON - Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said it was up to Russia to end its invasion, ahead of high-stakes talks on Monday with US counterpart Donald Trump, who is pressuring Ukraine to give up Crimea and abandon its NATO ambitions. The comments came hours before Zelensky and European leaders were scheduled to meet Trump in Washington, a follow-up to a summit between Trump and Putin in Alaska on Friday that failed to produce a ceasefire. Trump, who dropped his insistence on a ceasefire in favor of a final peace deal after meeting Putin, said late Sunday that Zelensky could end the three-and-a-half-year war "almost immediately, if he wants to." "Remember how it started. No getting back Obama given Crimea (12 years ago, without a shot being fired!), and NO GOING INTO NATO BY UKRAINE. Some things never change!!!", Trump wrote on Truth Social. Announcing that he had landed in Washington, Zelensky wrote later: "Russia must end this war, which it itself started." "Ukrainians are fighting for their land, their independence," he said, adding that he hoped "that our joint strength with America, with our European friends, will force Russia into a real peace." Trump and Zelensky are expected to meet one-on-one before being joined by the leaders of Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Finland, as well as NATO chief Mark Rutte and European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen, according to the White House. Ahead of Monday's meeting, China called for "all parties" to agree to peace "as soon as possible." It will be the first time Zelensky visits Washington since a bust-up with Trump and Vice President JD Vance in February, when the two men berated the Ukrainian leader for being "ungrateful." Russia kept up its attacks on Ukraine ahead of the new talks, firing at least 140 drones and four ballistic missiles at the country between late Sunday and early Monday, the Ukrainian air force said. A Russian drone attack on a five-story apartment block in the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv just before dawn killed at least seven people, authorities said. Ukrainian shelling attacks in the Russian-occupied parts of the Kherson and Donetsk regions meanwhile killed two people, Moscow-installed authorities said. SECURITY GUARANTEES Since the Oval Office row with Zelensky in February, Trump has grown more critical of Putin and shown some signs of frustration as Russia repeatedly stalled on peace talks. But Washington has not placed extra sanctions on Moscow, and the lavish welcome offered to Putin in Alaska on his first visit to the West since he invaded Ukraine in 2022 was seen as a diplomatic coup for Russia. Speaking in Brussels on the eve of his visit to the United States, Zelensky said he was keen to hear more about what Putin and Trump discussed in Alaska. He also hailed Washington's offer of security guarantees to Ukraine as "historic." Trump said he spoke to Putin about the possibility of a collective defense guarantee for Ukraine similar to the one in place for NATO members. The promise would be outside of the framework of the Western military alliance that Ukraine wants to join and which is seen as an existential threat by Russia. DISCUSSION ON LAND Trump envoy Steve Witkoff said Moscow had made "some concessions" regarding five Ukrainian regions that Russia now fully or partially controls, and that there was an "important discussion with regard to Donetsk and what would happen there." "That discussion is going to specifically be detailed on Monday," he told CNN, without giving details. Russia annexed Crimea in 2014 following a referendum denounced as a sham by Kyiv and the West, and did the same in 2022 in four Ukrainian regions - Donetsk, Kherson, Lugansk and Zaporizhzhia - even though its forces have not fully captured them. A source briefed on a phone call between Trump and European leaders on Saturday told AFP that the US leader was "inclined to support" a Russian demand to be given territory it had not yet captured in the Donbas, an area that includes the Donetsk and Lugansk regions and that has seen the deadliest battles of the war. In exchange, Moscow would agree to "freeze" the front line in Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, regions where Russian forces hold swathes of territory but not the regional capitals, the source cited Trump as saying. Russia had until now insisted that Ukraine pull its forces from all four regions as a precondition to any deal. Zelensky has said he is constitutionally bound not to give away any Ukrainian territory.
