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Padrino announced the operation more than a week after the U.S. government announced the deployment of three guided-missile destroyers to the waters off Venezuela to combat threats from . Venezuela's initial response to the deployment was to call on Venezuelans to enlist in a volunteer militia meant to assist the armed forces in the defense of external and domestic attacks.

The move to deploy U.S. destroyers and personnel comes as pushes for using the military to thwart cartels he blames for the flow of fentanyl and other illicit drugs into American communities and for perpetuating violence in some U.S. cities.

On Monday, insisted during a weekly television show that his country, unlike neighboring Colombia, is “free of coca leaf crops and free of cocaine production.” He also criticized the U.S. government for not addressing the drug consumption within its borders.

In a separate announcement Tuesday, Padrino said an ongoing operation in Venezuela's northeastern corner had resulted in the dismantling of shipyards where criminals intended “to manufacture semisubmersibles and boats to transport drugs by sea” to markets in Europe and North America.