Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro issued a defiant message amid escalating tensions with the United States, denouncing Washington for “inventing an eternal war” to justify military aggression in the Caribbean. Speaking in Caracas, Maduro called on South America and the Caribbean to mobilize for peace, saying, “We say: no to war, yes to peace, yes to prosperity, yes to harmony.” He reaffirmed that Venezuela remains free of coca and cocaine production and vowed to eliminate what he called “the remaining five percent of drug transit coming from Colombia.”