Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro announced plans to deploy 4.5 million militia members nationwide in response to U.S. “threats,” after Washington increased its bounty for his arrest to $50 million and launched anti-drug operations in the Caribbean.

The militia, created under Hugo Chávez, is officially said to number 5 million, though the true figure is likely smaller.

Maduro condemned U.S. sanctions and accusations linking him to drug trafficking, while calling for the expansion of peasant and worker militias to defend Venezuela’s sovereignty, Barron’s has reported.