The United States is seeking a regime change in his country with a naval deployment in the Caribbean, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said on Monday (September 1) in a rare press conference.

Tensions between the United States and Venezuela have risen in recent weeks amid a large U.S. naval buildup in the Southern Caribbean and nearby waters, which U.S. officials say aims to address threats from Latin American drug cartels.

U.S. President Donald Trump has made cracking down on drug cartels a central goal of his administration, part of a wider effort to limit migration and secure the U.S. southern border.

But Maduro, Venezuelan Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello and other officials have said the U.S. is threatening their country and the buildup is meant to justify an intervention against them.

"They are seeking a regime change through military threat," Maduro told journalists, officials and uniformed military brass in Caracas, echoing comments last week by his government's representative at the United Nations. Venezuela's military is "super prepared," Maduro said.

Venezuela's government has scoffed at U.S. assertions that the country and its leadership are key to major international drug trafficking.

In early August, the United States doubled its reward for information leading to Maduro's arrest to $50 million over allegations of drug trafficking and links to criminal groups.

While U.S. Coast Guard and Navy ships regularly operate in the Southern Caribbean, this buildup is significantly larger than usual deployments in the region. But it is unclear exactly how the U.S. military presence would disrupt the drug trade.

Most of the seaborne drug trade travels to the United States via the Pacific, not the Atlantic, where the U.S. forces are, and much of what arrives via the Caribbean comes on clandestine flights, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime's 2023 Global Report on Cocaine.

DESCRIPCIÓN DE IMÁGENES

CARACAS, VENEZUELA (SEPTEMBER 1, 2025) (REUTERS - Access all)

1. VENEZUELAN PRESIDENT NICOLAS MADURO AND FIRST LADY CILIA FLORES ARRIVING AT NEWS CONFERENCE

2. VARIOUS OF MADURO DURING NEWS CONFERENCE

3. (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) VENEZUELAN PRESIDENT, NICOLAS MADURO, SAYING:

"Eight military ships with 1,200 missiles and a nuclear submarine are targeting Venezuela. This is an extravagant, unjustifiable, immoral, and absolutely criminal, bloody threat. They have wanted to escalate what they call 'maximum pressure,' which in this case is military. And in response to maximum military pressure, we have declared maximum preparedness for the defense of Venezuela."

4. MADURO DURING NEWS CONFERENCE

5. (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) VENEZUELAN PRESIDENT, NICOLAS MADURO, SAYING:

"Mr. President Donald Trump, you must be careful because Marco Rubio wants to stain your hands with blood—South American, Caribbean, Venezuelan blood. They want to drag you into a bloodbath, to tarnish the Trump name forever with a massacre against the Venezuelan people, with a terrible war across South America and the Caribbean. This would be a full-scale continental war. They want to stain Donald Trump's hands with blood."

6. VARIOUS OF GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS DURING NEWS CONFERENCE

7. (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) VENEZUELAN PRESIDENT NICOLAS MADURO, SAYING: "On a human level, if you asked Nico—that is, me—what message I would send to Mr. Donald Trump, President of the United States, I would say: seek peace. In us, you will always find a friendly hand for peace, for development, for independence, for dignity, and with respect (showing the Venezuelan constitution). The pursuit of regime change is exhausted and has failed as a policy worldwide."

8. MADURO DURING NEWS CONFERENCE

9. VARIOUS OF MADURO AT THE END OF THE PRESS CONFERENCE

10. MADURO GREETING PEOPLE AT THE END OF THE PRESS CONFERENCE / MADURO LEAVING