Venezuela will send military vessels to the Caribbean Sea and other waters to combat drug trafficking, the country's defense minister announced Tuesday. The move comes as tensions with the US simmer over the deployment of three warships to the region.

Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino Lopez said the vessels will patrol the Gulf of Venezuela as well as the country's 'territorial waters' in the Caribbean. In an Instagram reel, Padrino added that about 15,000 members of the armed forces will participate in efforts on land and at sea to fight ' the armed, terrorist, drug-trafficking groups operating on the border' with Colombia.

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 Latin American drug cartels. 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.