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Venezue­lan Pres­i­dent Nicolás Maduro on Mon­day said his coun­try was at “max­i­mum pre­pared­ness” and ready to re­spond if at­tacked by forces that the Unit­ed States gov­ern­ment has de­ployed to the Caribbean.

His com­ments dur­ing a news con­fer­ence come as the U.S. gov­ern­ment this week is set to boost its mar­itime force in the wa­ters off Venezuela to com­bat threats from Latin Amer­i­can drug car­tels.

The U.S. has not sig­nalled any planned land in­cur­sion by the thou­sands of per­son­nel be­ing de­ployed. Still, Maduro’s gov­ern­ment has re­spond­ed by de­ploy­ing troops along its coast and bor­der with neigh­bour­ing Colom­bia, as well as by urg­ing Venezue­lans to en­list in a civil­ian mili­tia.