'No Crazy War, Please!': Venezuela's Maduro Pleads for Peace

ERBIL (Kurdistan24) – The Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro on Thursday implored the United States to avoid a "crazy war," as a dramatic and rapidly expanding American military campaign in the Caribbean and Pacific sends tensions soaring to their most dangerous levels in years.

As reported by Agence France-Presse (AFP), Maduro's appeal for peace came as his government mobilized its own forces in response to a massive U.S. deployment and a series of lethal strikes at sea, a campaign that Washington frames as a "war on drugs" but which Caracas and a growing number of observers view as a thinly veiled prelude to a regime-change operation.

"Yes peace, yes peace forever, peace forever. No crazy war, please!" Maduro said, speaking in English during a meeting with unions aligned with his leftist government. His plea was a direct response to a cascade of aggressive moves and rhetoric from the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump, who just last week confirmed he had authorized covert CIA action inside Venezuela and is openly considering strikes against alleged drug cartels on land.

The situation has created a tense and volatile standoff, with the U.S. projecting overwhelming military power and the Venezuelan government vowing to resist what it sees as an imminent threat to its sovereignty.

The American military ramp-up has been swift, formidable, and undeniable.

As detailed in a Kurdistan24 report, the U.S. has surged over 10,000 troops, eight warships, a submarine, and an array of advanced aircraft, including stealth warplanes and surveillance drones, into the region.

The most recent and potent display of this power came on Thursday, when the U.S. flew powerful, supersonic B-1 bombers near the Venezuelan coast.

The flights, confirmed by senior U.S. officials and flight tracking data to media outlets like The Wall Street Journal and Fox News, were a clear and unmistakable signal of "seriousness and intent," as one retired Air Force general described it.

The public justification for this massive deployment is an unprecedented crackdown on what President Trump has labeled "narcoterrorists."

 At a White House roundtable on Thursday, Trump celebrated what he called a "sweeping, unprecedented, and historically successful operation... to arrest, prosecute and permanently remove members of foreign drug cartels from American soil," declaring the cartels to be "the ISIS of the Western Hemisphere."

The most controversial and deadly element of this campaign has been a series of lethal kinetic strikes against suspected drug-trafficking vessels at sea.

The U.S. strikes, which began on September 2, have now killed at least 37 people, according to an AFP tally based on U.S. figures. The campaign has seen nine vessel strikes to date, targeting what the U.S. says are drug boats and a semi-submersible.

However, Washington has yet to release any public evidence to substantiate its claims that the targets were indeed smuggling narcotics, a fact that has led legal experts to question the legality of using lethal force in international waters against suspects who have not been intercepted or questioned.

President Trump's own rhetoric has been both aggressive and at times contradictory, further fueling the uncertainty and fear in the region.

During the same Thursday roundtable where he touted his anti-cartel successes, he issued a flat denial of the B-1 bomber flights, telling reporters, "No, it's not accurate. It's false."

In the same breath, however, he reiterated his deep grievances with Maduro's government. "But we're not happy with them," he said. "They've emptied their prisons into our country."

He also made it clear that he sees the campaign as a direct and lethal action that does not require congressional approval. When asked why he was not seeking a formal declaration of war, a power that the U.S. Constitution grants to Congress, the President was dismissive.

"We're not going to necessarily ask for a declaration of war," he said. "We're just going to kill people who come into our country."

It is this aggressive posture and the clear indications of a widening conflict—with Trump openly suggesting that strikes on land could be "next"—that has led many to believe the true objective of the military buildup is not drug interdiction, but the overthrow of Nicolás Maduro, whom the U.S. government has accused of heading a drug cartel.

This suspicion has created a surprising and significant fissure within President Trump's own "America First" base. As reported by The New York Times, prominent conservative commentators like Stephen K. Bannon and influential outside advisers like Laura Loomer have raised alarms about a potential slide into another "forever war," with Bannon pointedly asking if the Venezuela campaign is a "breeding ground for neocon 3.0."

In Caracas, the Venezuelan government is taking the American military posturing with the utmost seriousness.

The country's defense minister, Vladimir Padrino, was seen on Thursday overseeing military exercises along the coast, a direct response to the U.S. deployment.

He directly addressed Trump's authorization of covert action, stating, "We know the CIA is present" in Venezuela.

"They may deploy -- I don't know how many -- CIA-affiliated units in covert operations... and any attempt will fail," Padrino declared, vowing resistance to any U.S. incursion.

The escalating tensions are also pulling in other regional actors. The government of Trinidad and Tobago, an island nation located just off Venezuela's coast, announced late Thursday that a U.S. warship would be docking in its capital, Port of Spain, from October 26 to 30.

The Trinidadian foreign ministry confirmed that a unit of U.S. Marines would be conducting joint exercises with its own defense forces.

This development is particularly sensitive, as two of the individuals killed in the U.S. strikes at sea were reportedly citizens of Trinidad and Tobago, highlighting how the American campaign is having a direct and often deadly impact on the citizens of neighboring countries.

As the U.S. continues to project its military might and President Trump continues to issue bellicose threats, the situation in the Caribbean is becoming increasingly precarious.

Maduro's plea for "no crazy war" is a reflection of the deep anxiety felt across a region that finds itself once again at the center of a high-stakes geopolitical confrontation.

While Washington insists its focus is on drug traffickers, its actions—from the deployment of strategic bombers and warships to the authorization of covert CIA operations—speak a language of military coercion that many interpret as a clear and present threat of war.

The question that remains unanswered, as one analyst cited by The Washington Post warned, is whether what began as a limited action against alleged drug smugglers could quickly and disastrously expand into an interstate war, regime change, and all the unpredictable and tragic consequences that would inevitably follow.