MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Maduro says foreign movements organizing brigades to help Venezuela

The Bolivarian leader also dubbed Washington's narrative “deranged”

Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro announced Friday that international social movements were organizing the “Simón Bolívar Internationalist Brigades” to “fight alongside Venezuela for independence, sovereignty, and peace.”

Speaking from the “El Gran Topo Agrotourism Commune” alongside international guests from the Platform of Solidarity with the Bolivarian Revolution, Maduro claimed that videos were circulating online showing “social leaders, young people, women leaders, union leaders” calling for the formation of these brigades.

The Bolivarian leader also referred to the “deranged” US narrative to justify military aggression against Venezuela. Maduro asserted the US could not accuse Venezuela of having weapons of mass destruction, building nuclear weapons, or aiming missiles at US cities.

“Since they can't say it, they invent an extravagant, vulgar, criminal, and totally false narrative,” Maduro said, referring to US accusations linking Venezuela to drug trafficking. He insisted that Venezuela was a country “free of coca leaf production, free of cocaine production,” which was working to eliminate the “tiny 5% of drug trafficking that comes from Colombia.”

He credited these achievements to the country's military, police, and intelligence forces, noting that progress had been made “since we broke with the [US] DEA, the world's largest drug cartel.”

Maduro stressed that the country is united in rejecting confrontation, citing that 94% of Venezuelans oppose war. He called for the mobilization of “the peoples of South America and the Caribbean” to avoid conflict and promote peace.

The President's comments came as the Bolivarian National Armed Forces (FANB) and the Bolivarian National Militia continued nationwide defense exercises across the Venezuelan coasts. The maneuvers, set to conclude Saturday, involve establishing at least 73 main defense points and between 700 and 1,000 total control and surveillance points along the coast to guarantee national sovereignty.