Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro declared a state of “maximum readiness” after claiming eight US warships carrying about 1,200 missiles, plus a submarine, were positioned to target Venezuela, while Washington framed the deployment as an anti–drug trafficking operation with no public invasion threat. Maduro said Venezuela would patrol its waters, mobilize millions of militia reservists, and respond to “maximum military pressure,” asserting the situation was the region’s gravest threat in a century and warning of a potential “bloodbath” if the standoff escalated, as Guyana’s president Irfaan Ali welcomed the US presence amid a long‑running Essequibo dispute intensified by major oil finds since the mid‑2010s. Reports noted a US guided‑missile cruiser transited the Panama Canal toward the Caribbean late last week, while US authorities have doubled a bounty for Maduro to $50 million and continue to accuse his government of narco‑trafficking, allegations Caracas rejects as regime‑change pressure; diplomatic channels between Caracas and Washington were described as broken. Analysts cited by regional media said the US posture is likely intended to increase pressure rather than initiate direct conflict, as Venezuela petitioned the UN to denounce the deployment and signaled readiness for an “armed struggle” only if attacked, against the backdrop of contested 2018 and 2024 elections not recognized by the US and several countries.