(CNN) — Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro announced on Monday the deployment of 4.5 million militiamen throughout the country, assuring that “no empire will touch the sacred soil of Venezuela,” after the United States doubled the reward for information leading to his arrest and increased the number of troops sailing around Latin America and the Caribbean.

Last week, the US government confirmed to CNN that it had ordered naval movements in the region to contain the threat from drug trafficking groups. On Monday, Reuters reported that three US Navy destroyers and some 4,000 military personnel would arrive at the edge of Venezuela’s territorial waters within the next 36 hours.

On Tuesday, however, a US Department of Defense official said there are currently no US ships in the area and

See Full Page