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4w ago

Maduro Moves Up Christmas to Oct. 1, Orders 25,000 Troops to Borders in U.S. Standoff

Washington’s counter-narcotics surge—warships, a higher bounty on Maduro, a deadly boat interdiction—has turned a political feud into a military posture.

View of a tank next to trees with Christmas decorations in 2024, at the military complex in Fuerte Tiuna in Caracas
For the second year in a row, Maduro has advanced Christmas by two months in an effort to lift spirits
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Overview

  • Maduro announced the early start to Christmas on state TV, casting the move as a bid to lift public morale.
  • He expanded a planned deployment to 25,000 soldiers, concentrating forces along the Caribbean coast, oil facilities, and the Colombia border.
  • The U.S. says eight Navy ships, including USS Iwo Jima and USS Sampson, are supporting counter-narcotics operations as Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth and Gen. Dan Caine visited regional assets and Puerto Rico.
  • Two Venezuelan F-16s flew over the destroyer USS Jason Dunham in what U.S. defense officials described as a show of force.
  • The Trump administration doubled its reward for Maduro to $50 million and reports a recent interdiction that sank a boat and killed 11 alleged cartel members, accusations Venezuela rejects.