MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Maduro orders Armed Forces to ready “indigenous brigades”

Maduro praises the formation of indigenous militias amid US threats

Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro ordered the expansion of indigenous militias within the Bolivarian forces to defend the nation against what he calls a “threat” from the US military deployment in the Caribbean.

 Speaking at a ceremony for Indigenous Resistance Day on Sunday, Maduro claimed to have received letters from indigenous peoples across the Americas who are “willing to go to war to defend the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela” and ordered the formation of “indigenous brigades.”

“If you want peace, prepare to win peace with the union of the people, the military, and the police, with permanent national unity. The order has been given: win peace, exercise permanent sovereignty over our territory and seas, and defend the right to life,” Maduro noted.

He also insisted the US naval deployment —officially meant to combat drug trafficking— was a pretext for a “threat” and an alleged intention to invade Venezuela or bring about “regime change.”

In this context, the Chavista leader instructed the military to accelerate the integration and expansion of the indigenous militia “in all territories of the country” to “win peace, exercise permanent sovereignty over our territory and seas, and defend the right to life.”

Minister of Indigenous Peoples, Clara Vidal, presented Maduro with a headdress which she described as “one of the silent weapons that defeated the Spanish empire,” characterizing him as the “Indian chief of Venezuela,” and warned that modern US ships in the Caribbean carried “missiles,” unlike the Spanish ships of the past.

Tensions with Washington remain high, with the US government accusing Maduro of leading a drug cartel and offering a US$50 million reward for his capture. The US has denied planning a ground incursion.