Venezuela's Maduro says US seeking regime change with naval build-up

By Deisy Buitrago

CARACAS, Sept 1 (Reuters) - 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 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 is confronting the biggest threat that has been seen on our continent in the last 100 years," Maduro added. "A situation like this has never been seen."

His country is peaceful, Maduro added, but will not bow to threats. Venezuela's military is "super prepared," he 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.