CARACAS, August 22. /TASS/. Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has announced mobilization of the Bolivarian National Militia over the United States’ threat to destabilize the country.

"I am calling for the mobilization of the Bolivarian National Militia in the military headquarters, in the central squares and in the headquarters of the 15,751 people's integrated defense base on August 23 and 24," Maduro told the militia as broadcast by the Venezolana de Televisión channel.

"Venezuela will win again in the face of the criminal threat of American imperialism," the head of state said. "There is imperialism with its threats, screams and psychological warfare; here we are with our strength, might and the right to peace," Maduro said, adding that "the unity of the military, the people and the police" guarantees success.

The Venezuelan leader pointed to the need to "defend the historical right to build its own economic, political, cultural, social and military model" and Latin America's right to "independence and sovereignty."

The Bolivarian National Militia, according to Maduro, has more than 4.5 million members.

On August 19, Reuters news agency, citing Pentagon sources, said that three US Navy destroyers would soon arrive in the southern Caribbean and would be off the coast of Venezuela "to conduct operations against drug cartels." According to The New York Times, US President Donald Trump secretly signed a directive to the Pentagon to begin using military force against Latin American drug cartels.

White House Spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said that Trump is ready to use all necessary means to stop drug smuggling from Venezuela. Washington groundlessly accuses Maduro of belonging to the non-existent Cartel de los Soles drug cartel, whose name is associated with the image of suns on the shoulder straps of Venezuelan generals.