Venezuela calls for a "readiness campaign" to confront US "threats"

MADRID, 22 (EUROPA PRESS)

The Venezuelan president has called for a "day of readiness" to join forces and confront the "threats" recently expressed by the United States, which advocates using "all its resources" to "put an end to drug trafficking."

"I have deemed it appropriate that on Saturday and Sunday we hold a major day of enlistment and call-up of all militiamen and women, all reservists, and all citizens who wish to step forward to tell imperialism that enough is enough with the threats," Maduro asserted.

"Venezuela rejects you, Venezuela wants peace," he asserted, referring to the US position, according to statements broadcast on the state-run VTV channel.

This enlistment day will take place at all available military barracks, as well as in town squares throughout the country and at the military bases of the Army and the Bolivarian Militia.

"What Venezuela is demanding is respect for the right of Latin America and the Caribbean to be truly independent and to build their own economic, military, and popular models without external impositions," the president asserted, highlighting the role of this militia, which he charged with "protecting national sovereignty."

The Bolivarian Militia, part of the Caribbean nation's Armed Forces, has more than four million members and is often described as the "ordinary people in uniform."

This week, Maduro announced the deployment of 4.5 million militia members across the country, a measure part of his "peace plan" to guarantee "tranquility and sovereignty" in the face of external threats.

This measure was introduced shortly after the U.S. government set the reward for information leading to the arrest of the Venezuelan president at $50 million (almost €43 million ), raising the figure of $25 million (just over €21 million) announced earlier this year.