(ZeroHedge)—Venezuela is preparing for armed struggle in the scenario it comes under attack by the United States, or its sovereignty is threatened, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro warned soon after President Trump escalated the Pentagon’s force posture in the southern Caribbean.

“If Venezuela were attacked in any way, it would move into a stage of planned and organized armed struggle by all its people against aggression, whether local, regional, or national, in defense of peace, territorial integrity, sovereignty, and our people,” Maduro had said Friday. On Sunday, tens of thousands of more troops were mobilized.

President Trump soon after warned that if Venezuelan jets keep buzzing US warships in regional waters, then they would be shot out of the sky (if deemed a threat to American vessels).

Maduro has confirmed initiation of militia training to involve citizens in the country’s national defense efforts – a ‘popular mobilization’ of sorts. Interestingly, in a televised statement he featured a visual diagram, outlining the current levels of operational readiness within the nation’s defense forces, stating that currently a “yellow phase” of integrated defense is active.

The Maduro government on Sunday called up additional troops to deploy in border regions amid the US deployments off Venezuela’s coast:

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has ordered more troops in the Guajira region of Zulia state and the Paraguana peninsula in Falcon, Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino said, adding that the area constituted “a drug trafficking route”.

The military’s presence on the island of Nueva Esparta and in the states of Sucre and Delta Amacuro will also be expanded. Some 25,000 troops are set to be deployed, up from the 10,000 which have been deployed in the states of Zulia and Tachira that border Colombia, he said.

Some interesting scenes coming from the Venezuelan coast:

TERROR: Maduro is forcing Venezuelan fisherman to accompany TdA Fentanyl traffickers along their routes serving as human shields. Maduro’s Bolivarian Militia is a violation of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. pic.twitter.com/PKnXDoduiX

— @amuse (@amuse) September 8, 2025

And so it seems Maduro is making an effort to convince Washington that he has the narco-trafficking situation in and around Venezuela fully under control.

Importantly, Trump has rejected accusations that the US is plotting regime change in Caracas. “We’re not talking about that,” he told reporters Friday when asked about this scenario.

The US has justified its recent actions, which included last week’s military strike on an allegedly drug-laden boat that killed eleven people, by saying that Maduro is in league with the cartels.

Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth has called Maduro “effectively a kingpin of a drug narco state” and that because of this he “should be worried.”