(MENAFN- IANS) Caracas, Oct 19 (IANS) Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro announced the launch of military drills codenamed the "Great Corridor of the Venezuelan Plain" as part of the "Independence 200" operation to strengthen national defence amid perceived US military threats.

The exercises, which started early Saturday and cover the central states of Barinas, Portuguesa, Cojedes and Guarico, are part of a nationwide mobilisation aimed at enhancing the country's preparedness against potential external attacks, reports Xinhua news agency.

"All the integral defence zones across the country are now active and operational," Maduro said in a message posted on social media on Saturday (local time). "We have completed all the zones with 27 fundamental defence tasks."

The President highlighted coordination among civilian, police and military sectors, calling it "a perfect and organised fusion" to safeguard national sovereignty and internal stability.

"We want to keep winning along the path of peace," Maduro said, referring to what he called the US military buildup in the Caribbean near Venezuelan waters.

He added that the drills are designed to achieve "the optimal level of readiness" among national defence forces through broad civic participation and territorial coordination.

Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump has announced that Washington had destroyed a "drug-smuggling submarine" in the Caribbean and was sending two surviving suspects back to their home countries, Ecuador and Colombia, following a military strike that killed two others on board.

"It was my great honour to destroy a very large drug-carrying submarine that was navigating towards the United States on a well-known narcotrafficking transit route," Trump said on his Truth Social platform on Saturday (local time), claiming that the vessel was loaded with fentanyl and other narcotics.

The President alleged that if the submarine had been allowed to reach the United States, "at least 25,000 Americans would have died."

"There were four known narcoterrorists on board the vessel. Two of the terrorists were killed... The two surviving terrorists are being returned to their countries of origin, Ecuador and Colombia, for detention and prosecution," he further stated.

The strike marks the latest action in what he described as an unprecedented US military campaign to curb the flow of narcotics from Latin America into the United States.

Since September, at least six vessels -- mostly speedboats -- have been targeted by US forces in the Caribbean, with some allegedly originating from Venezuela.

Washington has claimed that its campaign is delivering a severe blow to international drug networks. However, it has yet to present concrete evidence proving that the 27 individuals killed in these operations were indeed drug traffickers.

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