Venezuela, on high alert as a US military deployment off its coast has stirred invasion fears, will hold disaster preparedness drills Saturday as President Nicolas Maduro mulls invoking emergency powers.

Maduro called for the drills on Thursday, hours after several earth tremors rattled a population already unnerved by deadly US strikes on alleged Venezuelan narco boats.

US President Donald Trump has deployed eight warships and a nuclear-powered submarine to the southern Caribbean as part of a stated plan to combat drug trafficking.

Maduro, whom Trump accuses of leading a narco cartel, suspects Washington of pursuing regime change.

US forces have destroyed at least three suspected drug boats in the Caribbean in recent weeks, killing over a dozen people in a move decried as "extrajudici

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