Venezuela mobilizes 200,000 troops as the U.S. aircraft carrier Gerald R. Ford enters the Caribbean

Venezuela ordered a massive military mobilization of approximately 200,000 troops across all branches—army, navy, air force, and Bolivarian militia—in response to the USS Gerald R. Ford carrier strike group entering the Caribbean. Air defense systems and naval assets were raised to heightened alert along Venezuela's northern coast. Maduro framed the mobilization as defensive against U.S. aggression.