(MENAFN) Venezuelan Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello stated on Thursday that none of the 11 individuals who died in a U.S. military assault on a vessel in the Caribbean last week were affiliated with the Tren de Aragua criminal group, opposing earlier assertions made by Washington.

"We have conducted our investigations here in our country, and there are the families of the disappeared people who want their relatives," Cabello explained.

"When we asked in the towns, none were from Tren de Aragua, none were drug traffickers.”

Cabello refuted the allegations made by U.S. President Donald Trump, who had insisted the ship belonged to the Tren de Aragua gang and was transporting illegal substances to the United States.

He labeled the accusation as a "tremendous falsehood, a tremendous lie," emphasizing that "a murder was committed against a group of citizens."

In response to cartel threats, the U.S. military has positioned naval vessels equipped with missiles and a nuclear-powered submarine near Venezuela’s shoreline in the Caribbean.

Additionally, ten F-35 fighter planes have been stationed at a military base in Puerto Rico as part of a heightened strategy to target drug trafficking operations.

On Thursday, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro cautioned that any individual advocating for a foreign invasion of his nation would be "immediately tried" and branded a "traitor to the homeland."

He reaffirmed Venezuela’s readiness to engage in "armed struggle" if faced with a military offensive by the United States.

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