Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has threatened to mobilise 3.4 million militia members after the US raised a bounty for his arrest and launched anti-drug operations in the Caribbean.
Maduro carries a whopping $50 million bounty on his head from the US President Donald Trump's administration.
In a state televised address, Maduro said, 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.”
Official figures, though, contend that the Venezuelan militia founded by Hugo Chavez contains about 5 million people. The number is hyper-inflated, and the actual number is stated to be between 1 and 2 million.
Venezuela’s total population is roughly 30 million. If the numbers stated by Maduro are believed, it means a massive population has arms in the country, which can act on the directions of his government. Maduro blasted what he called "the renewal of extravagant, bizarre, and outlandish threats" from the United States.
The Donald Trump administration earlier this month doubled its bounty to $50 million for the arrest of Maduro, who faces drug trafficking charges. Maduro is wanted in the US for aiding the drug trade and providing security cover to drug cartels of the Latin American nations. Though the charges have never been proved against the Venezuelan.
"We are also deployed throughout the Caribbean...in our sea, our property, Venezuelan territory," Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello said. Maduro called on his government's political base to move forward with the formation of peasant and worker militias "in all industries".
"Rifles and missiles for the peasant force! To defend the territory, sovereignty, and peace of Venezuela," declared Maduro.
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