In a meeting with national and international journalists, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro once again lashed out at Governor Jenniffer González and assured that “the whole island of Puerto Rico is ready to invade Venezuela”.

This is the second time that the president alludes to a military invasion in response to the mobilization ordered by President Donald Trump in his alleged offensive against narco-trafficking in the Caribbean.

“What are we doing with eight ships out front pointing 1,200 missiles at Venezuela, a nuclear submarine and, according to the governor of Puerto Rico, the entire island of Puerto Rico is ready to invade Venezuela,” the official alleged.

“It’s what the governor says and that they have 100 F-35 planes over there that are going to bomb us and that they have thousands of soldiers and the whole island with the governor in front of them,” Maduro added.

El Nuevo Día requested a reaction from La Fortaleza, but did not obtain a response by the time of this publication.

This is not the first time the president has launched harsh criticism against González. In a past interview, he urged the governor, if she is interested in a military invasion of Venezuela, to “come first” in “the first boat... that Venezuelan women will be waiting for her here.”

As recently as last Sunday, a group of F-35 fighter jets from the U.S. Marine Corps landed on the runway at the José Aponte de la Torre Regional Airport in Ceiba, which was part of the former Roosevelt Roads Naval Base.

The presence of a U.S. Air Force Boeing C-5 aircraft was also spotted at the same airport.

For the past two weeks, the same runway at the Ceiba airport has been used by V-22 Osprey aircraft, as well as CH-53K King Stallion aircraft, both from the Marine Corps.

Meanwhile, in the Caribbean Sea, amphibious-capable warships of the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit (22nd MEU) are sailing.

In late August, the U.S. government announced that the relocation of the 22nd MEU would be for exercises in southern Puerto Rico, an area where its operations have already been documented.

A few days after visiting the island, the secretary of the newly renamed War Department, Pete Hegseth, stated in a video posted on X that the Marines had been deployed to the front lines of “the lines of defense of the U.S. territory.”

The military escalation comes after the U.S. government denounced that Maduro is part of a drug trafficking scheme, according to a Treasury Department press release, with alleged links to the Cartel of the Suns and the criminal organization the Train of Aragua.