CARACAS, Venezuela (AFP)—Key Venezuelan opposition leaders on Monday backed a major US naval deployment in the Caribbean near the South American country, calling it a critical move for the restoration of democracy.

Exiled former presidential candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, whom the United States views as Venezuela’s rightful leader, said the military build-up was “a necessary measure to dismantle the criminal structure” preventing “the restoration of popular sovereignty in Venezuela.”

He added that the Venezuelan people had “no choice but to force the departure of this regime.”

President Donald Trump has dispatched eight warships to the southern Caribbean as part of a stated plan to combat drug trafficking but which Venezuela fears could be the preamble to an invasion.

US forces have destroyed at least three suspected Venezuelan drug boats off its coast in recent weeks, killing at least 14 people.

Left-wing authoritarian President Nicolas Maduro, whose re-election last year in elections marred by fraud allegations was widely rejected by the international community, has accused Trump of pursuing regime change.

In a joint video with Gonzalez Urrutia, opposition figurehead Maria Corina Machado accused Maduro’s government of trafficking “drugs, minerals, metals, weapons and human beings, along with many other crimes.”

She echoed Washington’s claim that Venezuelan crime gangs were “a real and growing threat to the security and stability” of the Americas.

Gonzalez Urrutia was the opposition’s candidate in the July 2024 presidential election.

The opposition’s tally of results from individual polling stations showed him easily beating Maduro.

Maduro’s claim to have rightfully won a third six-year term sparked violent protests which were harshly repressing, leaving 28 dead and hundreds behind bars.