Venezuelan president says invaders 'would not make it out alive'

Nicolás Maduro declared himself a ‘warrior of peace’ amid rising tensions with regional neighbours

The Venezuelan president, Nicolás Maduro, has warned his regime’s “imperialist” foes in the United States, Colombia and Brazil their troops “will not make it out alive” if they dare invade a single inch of Venezuela’s “sacred soil”.

Addressing thousands of armed members of Venezuela’s Bolivarian militia in Caracas, Maduro declared himself a “warrior of peace” who hoped to bring happiness and prosperity to his crumbling nation.

But amid rising tensions between Venezuela and its regional neighbours, Maduro ordered his troops to meticulously prepare to repel and crush foreign invaders.

Militiamen and women needed to be ready “to go to the heart of the enemy who dares touch Venezuelan soil – to go to the heart of the enemy and to tear out his heart in his own territory”.

Maduro warned it was possible an “imperialist force” might seek to storm some corner of the country. “But what the imperialists should know is that they won’t make it out alive, because the people will track them down and the people will defend our beloved and sacred Venezuela’s right to peace and independence and sovereignty with their lives.

“We will defend our homeland from imperialists and oligarchs and traitors … whether they are in Bogotá or Brasília,” he insisted, calling for the 1.6 million-member civilian force to be strengthened and “armed to the teeth” to make Venezuela “impregnable and untouchable”.

Maduro’s sabre-rattling speech came exactly a week after Russia landed two nuclear-capable bombers in Caracas in a high-profile show of support for Venezuela’s embattled president.

The US has turned up the heat on Maduro in recent months, declaring Venezuela part of a Latin America “troika of terror” and warning Maduro he will “have to go”.

The incoming administration of Brazil’s far-right president-elect, Jair Bolsonaro, has also set Maduro in its sights, with its next foreign minister on Sunday calling for Venezuela’s liberation.

In an interview with a Chilean newspaper, Bolsonaro’s son, Eduardo, insisted Brazil was not about to invade Venezuela with tanks and sought Maduro’s removal from power rather than his death.

But on Monday Maduro told his troops to prepare to protect Venezuela’s “coasts, rivers, plains, mountains, barrios, fields and cities” from foreign aggressors.

“Are we ready to defend the homeland? Are we ready to pounce on and defeat the traitors and the oligarchs?” Maduro bellowed. Members of the militia hoisted their assault rifles into the air and shouted: “Sí!”