MOSCOW, October 14. /TASS/. The deployment of US troops in the Caribbean poses a threat to peace across the region, Venezuelan Ambassador to Russia Jesus Rafael Salazar Velasquez said at a news briefing.

"Trying to upend the regime [in the republic], via all modes and manners they are waging a hybrid war, up to the deployment of [US] troops, including naval forces, in the Caribbean that we are currently witnessing," the diplomat said. He dismissed the idea that the military presence would help fight drug trafficking as a lie.

According to Salazar Velasquez, the US side has not provided any evidence of drugs, nor has it provided "information about people who have been killed by the US military." All those actions, he insisted, are just a pretext "for a military invasion of our country." The United States is seeking to establish control of minerals in the republic and is waging a hybrid war against Venezuela, he argued.

"The United States is seeking to place natural resources under its control and they are looking for governments that would work with them, <…> those that will not hold talks with either Russia, China, or India or any free countries but that would act as the United States wishes," Salazar Velasquez noted.

On October 7, US President Donald Trump instructed his administration to call off efforts toward finding a diplomatic solution to the escalation of tensions with Venezuela, The New York Times reported. The American media reported that the United States may launch strikes on drug cartel facilities in Venezuela in the next few weeks.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has voiced the opinion that the republic is facing the most serious threat of a US invasion in the last 100 years.