CARACAS (Dispatches) - Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has called for a permanent vigil and mobilization in the country’s eastern region in response to the announcement of joint military exercises by the United States and Trinidad and Tobago in the Caribbean.
“I once again call on all the people of the eastern states -- from southern Bolivar, Delta Amacuro, Monagas, Sucre, Anzoategui and Nueva Esparta -- to maintain perfect unity among citizens, military forces and police, to stand vigil and march in the streets with the Venezuelan flag held high,” Maduro said during a public event in Petare, in the northern state of Miranda.
He stressed that the call serves as a directive to all social and political sectors to remain alert and not fall for provocations.
Maduro made the remarks after Trinidad and Tobago announced a new deployment of military exercises with the United States, “using its waters off the coast of Sucre state.”
He criticized the move as an attempt to threaten the regional peace, and reiterated his call for mobilization “with patriotic fervor” to reject what he described as aggression.
On Friday, Trinidad and Tobago announced that it would resume military exercises with the United States, which maintains a deployment in the Caribbean. This marks the second joint drill in less than a month.
Maduro also addressed the American public, urging them to halt “the frenzied hand of those who order a war to be waged in South America and the Caribbean.”
Speaking in Caracas on Saturday, Maduro renewed Venezuela’s unwavering and unconditional support for the Palestinian struggle, calling it “the most sacred of all.”
Marking Palestinian Independence Day on November 15, he declared: “We will not abandon this sacred cause until the goal is achieved: Palestine will rise, free and independent.”
Maduro emphasized that genuine peace cannot result from brief ceasefires, saying that lasting stability requires holding the occupying regime accountable for grave violations of international law.
“Real peace will only come when justice is served for the crimes and genocide committed. Only then can recovery begin,” he said.
He urged the international community to speak out forcefully and end a recurring pattern of “massacres followed by agreements,” criticizing global inaction in the face of Israeli genocide.
Maduro also pledged Venezuela’s support for rebuilding Gaza and standing with the Palestinians throughout their resistance.
“This will be a historic moment of dignity and pride,” he said, referring to the day Palestine attains full independence.
He reiterated the need for Gaza’s reconstruction, recognition of al-Quds as the capital of a Palestinian state, and the establishment of full Palestinian sovereignty.
In earlier remarks, he stated Venezuela stands “on the front lines with Palestine,” condemning global silence over Israel’s mass killing of Palestinians as a “moral crime,” and urging immediate international action to halt the genocide.
Responding to the Sharm el-Sheikh ceasefire in October, Maduro again called the Palestinian cause “the most sacred cause of humanity,” cited the devastating Gaza death toll, and warned that any agreement without holding the Israeli regime accountable would amount to a “peace of rubble.”