CARACAS, Venezuela (AFP)—Venezuelan troops will give weapons training to residents of low-income neighborhoods this weekend as part of President Nicolas Maduro’s response to a US military build-up in the Caribbean, near his country.

Maduro, who accuses Washington of planning to invade Venezuela, said late Thursday that troops will go into communities “to teach all those men and women who enlisted (in a civilian militia) how to handle weapons systems.”

Speaking on state television, the leftist strongman, whom the United States accuses of heading a drug cartel, said it would be the first time soldiers would take their weapons out of the barracks into communities for training purposes.

The biggest US naval deployment in the Caribbean in decades and US strikes on at least two Venezuelan boats allegedly transporting drugs across the Caribbean have stoked fears that the United States is planning attacks on Venezuelan territory.

On Wednesday, Venezuela launched three days of military exercises on its Caribbean island of La Orchila in response to the perceived threat.

La Orchila is close to the area where the United States intercepted and held a Venezuelan fishing vessel for eight hours over the weekend.

US forces have also targeted suspected drug boats.

President Donald Trump says US forces have “knocked off” three boats in total but has only given details and video footage of two of the strikes, which left 14 dead.

Washington says its operations are part of its war on drug trafficking and dismisses questions over the legality of the strikes in international waters.

Trump has also sought to increase pressure on Maduro, whom the United States and much of the international community does not recognize as Venezuela’s rightful president.

Washington recently doubled its bounty for Maduro’s capture on drugs charges to $50 million.

Maduro accused the United States of hatching “an imperial plan for regime change and to impose a US puppet government.

“But it hasn’t happened, nor will it happen,” he vowed.