Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro pleaded with Donald Trump to avoid a ‘crazy war’ as an escalating US military campaign sent tensions soaring.
Maduro’s comment came after US President Donald Trump said he had authorised covert action against the South American nation amid a military campaign targeting what Washington says are drug traffickers in the Caribbean and Pacific.
‘Yes peace, yes peace forever, peace forever. No crazy war, please!’ Maduro said in English in a meeting with unions aligned with the leftist leader.
The United States has deployed stealth warplanes and navy ships as part of what it calls anti-narcotics efforts, but has yet to release evidence that its targets – eight boats and a semi-submersible – were smuggling drugs.
Speaking to reporters on Thursday, Trump again denied that he had sent B-1B bombers to Venezuela, but said ‘we’re not happy with them. They’ve emptied their prisons into our country.’
The president said ‘we’re not going to necessarily ask for a declaration of war’ from Congress, which has the constitutional power to do so.
‘We’re just going to kill people who come into our country.’
The US strikes, which began on September 2, have killed at least 37 people.
In response, Maduro has been bragging about holding at least 5,000 Russia-made anti-aircraft missiles in ‘key air defence positions’.
The US is yet to release evidence that the strikes it is carrying out are hitting drug-smuggling vessels
The United States has deployed stealth warplanes and navy ships as part of what it calls anti-narcotics efforts (File image of the USS Winston S. Churchill)
He said: ‘Any military force in the world knows the power of the Igla-S and Venezuela has no less than 5,000’.
Maduro was referring to Russian Igla-S missiles, short-range and low-altitude missiles that are used to shoot down cruise missiles, drones, helicopters and low-flying planes.
Regional tensions have flared as a result of the campaign, with Maduro accusing Washington of seeking regime change.
Late Thursday, the government in Trinidad and Tobago – located just off Venezuela’s coast – announced that a US warship would dock in its capital from October 26-30.
The Trinidadian foreign ministry said a unit of US Marines would conduct joint exercises with its defense forces.
Two of those killed in the US strikes were from Trinidad and Tobago.
Last week, Trump said he had authorised covert CIA action against Venezuela and was considering strikes against alleged drug cartels on land.
The Republican billionaire president accuses Maduro of heading a drug cartel, a charge the Venezuelan leader denies.
Trump witheringly told the press that Maduro offered the US ‘everything’ because he doesn’t want to ‘f*** with the United States’
Venezuelan military patrol around the Simon Bolivar International Bridge at the Colombia-Venezuela border as seen from Villa del Rosario, Colombia on October 16, 2025
Maduro (pictured) has been bragging about holding at least 5,000 Russia-made anti-aircraft missiles in ‘key air defence positions’
‘We know the CIA is present’ in Venezuela, the country’s defense minister Vladimir Padrino said Thursday.
‘They may deploy – I don’t know how many – CIA-affiliated units in covert operations… and any attempt will fail.’
Padrino was overseeing military exercises along Venezuela’s coast in response to the US military deployment in the Caribbean.
Experts have questioned the legality of using lethal force in foreign or international waters against suspects who have not been intercepted or questioned.
