Venezuelan president appeals to Colombian military for help amid Trump threats

​​​​​​​By Laura Gamba

BOGOTA, Colombia (AA) - Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro issued an urgent appeal Wednesday to Colombia for military solidarity, as tensions with the US reached a critical breaking point.

Maduro asserted that the "greatest guarantee" of regional peace and sovereignty lies in "union" between allied nations. He specifically urged the Colombian armed forces to align with Venezuela to deter foreign intervention.

“I make my call to the people of Colombia, to its social movements, and to the Colombian military, whom I know very well,” said Maduro. “I call upon them for a perfect union with Venezuela so that no one dares touch the sovereignty of our countries.”

The appeal follows a series of escalations from Washington. Maduro claimed that US President Donald Trump had finally "revealed his true motives" by accusing Venezuela of stealing American "oil, land, and other assets."

The Venezuelan leader characterized the accusations as "warmongering and colonialist pretense" designed to justify regime change.

"The aim is to impose a puppet government that wouldn’t last 47 hours -- one that would hand over our Constitution and wealth, turning Venezuela into a colony," Maduro told supporters. "It will simply never happen."

The standoff intensified Tuesday when Trump threatened to designate the Maduro government as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO). The US president boasted on his Truth Social platform of a massive naval presence encircling the South American nation.

“Venezuela is completely surrounded by the largest Armada ever assembled in the history of South America,” Trump wrote. “It will only get bigger, and the shock to them will be like nothing they have ever seen before—until such time as they return to the United States... all of the oil, land, and other assets that they previously stole from us,” he added.