On September 5, 2025, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro stood before the nation’s military brass at the Venezuelan Military Academy, clad in camouflage and surrounded by the high command. His message, delivered with characteristic bravado, was as much for the domestic audience as it was for the world: Venezuela, he declared, was facing “extremist currents from the north, Nazi-extremist,” a warning aimed squarely at the United States. According to Caracas Chronicles, this fiery rhetoric came just days after a dramatic incident at sea—a Venezuelan vessel, laden with 11 crew members and a shipment of cocaine bound for Trinidad and Tobago, was destroyed in international waters by a U.S. missile.
This high-stakes episode marked a sudden escalation in the already tense rivalry between Caracas and Washington. By September 10, as reported by The Floridian, Maduro sharpened his accusations, charging U.S. President Donald Trump with seeking a “Hollywoodized” war against Venezuela. The phrase, dripping with disdain, was meant to paint Trump’s actions as theatrical, even reckless, and to rally nationalist sentiment at home.
But Maduro’s saber-rattling didn’t stop at rhetoric. During his speech, he warned Trump directly that Venezuela was prepared to move to an “armed phase” if provoked. He claimed a staggering base of 12.7 million people linked to the Bolivarian National Militia (MNB)—a figure drawn from the 8.2 million new enlistees he said had joined following a nationwide “I enlist” campaign, plus the 4.5 million previously claimed by the government. While these numbers are widely seen as inflated—registration centers reportedly remained empty, and many public employees were coerced into signing up, according to reports gathered by the NGO Laboratorio de Paz—the message was clear: the government wanted to project an image of mass mobilization and readiness.
The MNB, formally recognized in 2020 as the fifth branch of Venezuela’s armed forces through a reform of the Organic Law of the Bolivarian National Armed Forces (LOFANB), has always been more than a traditional military force. As Caracas Chronicles notes, it is a sprawling civil-military structure, tasked with everything from military support and territorial control to political mobilization and social tasks. Unlike the Army, Navy, Air Force, or National Guard—which answer to the military high command—the militia is directly subordinated to the president, making it a potent tool for political power and social control.
Maduro’s latest moves are tightly bound to his broader political strategy. After the July 28, 2024 election—widely condemned as fraudulent—confirmed that chavismo lacked majority support, the regime scrambled to build new mechanisms for survival. On January 10, 2025, Maduro announced the “Communal State” as the core of his third term. The goal: to create a lasting institutional framework even without popular legitimacy. This push included efforts to weaken universal suffrage, introduce second-degree electoral mechanisms, and diminish the roles of governors and mayors—effectively redrawing Venezuela’s political map.
The militia’s role in this new order is central. On September 5, Maduro announced the creation of 5,336 Communal Militia Units, grouped under a structure dubbed the “Popular Integral Defense Base.” This, combined with the mass enlistment campaign, was designed to give the impression of a country mobilized for defense, ready to resist foreign intervention at any cost. “We are facing extremist currents from the north, Nazi-extremist, seeking to threaten the peace of South America and the Caribbean,” Maduro declared, his words echoing the anti-imperialist playbook that has been a staple of chavista propaganda for decades.
Yet for all the bluster, the reality on the ground is more complicated. The actual firepower of the MNB remains uncertain, and many analysts see the militia’s expansion as a means of tightening internal control rather than preparing for genuine military confrontation. The spectacle of mass mobilization, as Caracas Chronicles points out, serves to raise the perceived cost of any external intervention—deterring the U.S. and its allies by suggesting that any action against Venezuela would be met with widespread, popular resistance. It also reframes the issue of narcotrafficking, shifting the narrative from criminal complicity to a question of national sovereignty.
Maduro is also leveraging the standoff with the U.S. to patch up his battered authority, both domestically and with international allies. After years of eroding support and a lack of a unifying revolutionary myth, the threat of a foreign enemy offers a convenient rallying point. If the U.S. counternarcotics offensive fails to fracture the ruling coalition in Miraflores, the regime could even find new life by “heroically resisting” what it portrays as a siege by a foreign power.
Meanwhile, the U.S. appears determined to keep up the pressure. The destruction of the Venezuelan vessel in international waters sent a clear message that Washington is willing to act forcefully against what it sees as threats in the region. For President Trump, the counternarcotics campaign is both a matter of policy and political theater, playing into his administration’s broader narrative of confronting socialism and defending American interests in the hemisphere.
The stakes are high, and the risks are real. As the MNB’s prominence grows, Venezuela faces the prospect of a deepening militarization of society. The militia’s integration into everyday life—through territorial units, “combat” groups embedded in state institutions, and the coercion of public employees—threatens to normalize armed control and erode what remains of democratic governance and civil rights. “If the MNB consolidates as a pillar of the Communal State, Venezuela risks a profound normalization of social militarization—with lasting consequences for democracy and civil rights,” Caracas Chronicles warns.
For now, the crisis shows no sign of abating. Maduro continues to lean on the militia as both shield and sword, while the U.S. maintains its naval and aerial patrols in the southern Caribbean. The outcome remains uncertain, but one thing is clear: the struggle for Venezuela’s future is being fought not just in the halls of power, but in the streets, the barracks, and the hearts and minds of its people.
As the world watches, the question lingers—will this latest chapter in the U.S.-Venezuela saga end with negotiation, confrontation, or something altogether unexpected?