00:00And finally, we end in South America, where hundreds of Venezuelans are answering President Nicolas Maduro's call to join the militia.
00:07In Caracas, teachers, retirees, and public works queued up in the city squares with military barracks pledging to defend their homeland against what the Venezuelan leader calls U.S. aggression.
00:19The mobilization comes as American warships and thousands of Marines move through the Caribbean, part of what Washington is describing as an anti-drug mission.
00:28But Caracas insists the build-up is an illegal push for regime change.
00:33With chants of long-lived homeland, recruits have signed up in droves as tensions in the region continue to escalate.
00:41Here's the story with more.
00:45Caracas spoke to long queues this weekend, not for food or fuel, but for militia.
00:51At Plaza Bolivar, clerks, teachers, and retirees signed up, raising fists and chanting, long live the homeland.
01:03This call had come from President Nicolas Maduro himself.
01:07Join the Bolivarian national militia and defend Venezuela against a looming U.S. threat.
01:12We are responding to the call made by the Constitutional President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro,
01:23as we enroll in the Bolivarian militia to prevent any empire from setting foot on this homeland of liberators again.
01:32Recruitment centers opened everywhere.
01:35Military barracks, city squares, even Mira Flores Palace took in volunteers.
01:40Some were first-timers, but others had fought before.
01:47Well, we are signing up.
01:48At least here are those of us who are reservists, and those who are not are stepping forward.
01:53If there's a problem in the country, we must do what we did when we were 18, serve the homeland.
02:02The enlistment drive was more than a ritual.
02:05Volunteers watched films of past blockades and learned to handle weapons.
02:09Venezuela is responsible for bringing down empires, and this is the last empire that will fall, the United States.
02:19Mark my words, it's Venezuela's role to do it.
02:22In fact, we've already started, we're in the process.
02:25What's left of it is just the illusion of an empire.
02:28Maduro insists the militia already has 4.5 million members.
02:35However, independent analysts put the figure close to 343,000.
02:40Whatever the truth, the president is betting on numbers, not precision.
02:44He calls the mobilization part of a national plan for sovereignty and peace.
02:49Though the timing leaves little doubt, it comes as U.S. warships cut through Caribbean waters.
02:55In fact, last week, two sources revealed the deployment of an amphibious squadron near the Gulf of Venezuela.
03:03USS San Antonio, USS Iwo Jima and USS Fort Lauderdale.
03:08Together, they carry 4,500 sailors and marines, with a broader force of 22,000 nearby.
03:16The Pentagon frames it as a mission against drug cartels.
03:18The Trump administration calls Maduro a narco-terrorist, and a $50 million bounty now hangs over his head.
03:26Today, the Department of Justice and State Department are announcing a historic $50 million reward
03:33for information leading to the arrest of Nicolas Maduro.
03:37Under President Trump's leadership, Maduro will not escape justice,
03:41and he will be held accountable for his despicable crimes.
03:45Caracas, however, rejects the charges.
03:47Maduro labels the naval presence immoral, criminal, and illegal.
03:53He claims Washington is after a regime change, not cocaine roots.
04:00We denounce to the world that the U.S. military deployment in the Caribbean waters,
04:05disguised as anti-drug operations, represents a threat to the peace and stability of the region,
04:11and constitutes a flagrant violation of international law and the United Nations Charter,
04:16which enshrines respect for sovereignty, the equality of states, and the self-determination of peoples.
04:25But not all are convinced.
04:28Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado urged citizens to stay away from the militia,
04:33noting that very few high-ranking officers still back Maduro.
04:37But the lines at the registration centers told another story.
04:41Civil servants and pensioners signed up in droves.
04:44I am just another soldier like you, and I am willing to give my last breath,
04:51to give my life defending this homeland, and I will do so alongside you, my dear brothers and comrades.
04:56The tension has rippled across the region.
05:02Trinidad and Tobago threw with support behind Washington,
05:06even pledging U.S. access to its territory if Venezuela attacked Guyana.
05:11That dispute over the oil-rich Esequibo region remains a powder keg.
05:15I want to make it very clear that if the Maduro regime launches any attack against the Guyanese people
05:21or invades Guyanese territory,
05:23and a request is made by the American government for access to Trinidadian territory to defend the people of Guyana,
05:29my government will unflinchingly provide them that access.
05:33But the standoff is not frozen.
05:36It is shifting.
05:37Warships inch closer,
05:39militiamen sharpen drills,
05:42allies choose sides.
05:43And the next chapter in Venezuela's standoff with the United States is already being written.
05:50Only no one yet knows whether it will be with ink or with fire.
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