Venezuelan Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino López accused the United States of conspiring to overthrow President Nicolás Maduro to gain control over the resource-rich Essequibo region, a territory long disputed between Venezuela and Guyana.

A 60-foot-wide zone of New Mexico land that runs along the U.S. border with Mexico has been deemed part of Fort Huachuca, Ariz., to allow troops to begin arresting people for trespassing on military territory — an escalation of the authority given active-duty service members deployed to the region to deter illegal activity.

The two Marines killed this week in a vehicle crash near the U.S.-Mexico border have been identified as Lance Cpl. Albert A. Aguilera and Lance Cpl. Marcelino M. Gamino, combat engineers assigned to the 1st Combat Engineer Battalion, 1st Marine Division at Camp Pendleton, Calif.

Investigators are working to determine what caused a single-vehicle accident Tuesday morning in New Mexico that killed two Marines deployed to the southwest border mission and critically injured a third.

The Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Stockdale departed Naval Base San Diego on Friday to support U.S. Northern Command’s mission to help deter illegal crossings and drug trafficking.

President Donald Trump issued a directive Friday expanding military control over federal lands near the U.S.-Mexico border, seeking to bolster his efforts to crack down on undocumented migration.

The Venezuelan military says it has raised its alert level following the discovery of an alleged U.S. plot to fabricate an incident at an ExxonMobil offshore platform in the contested waters between Venezuela and Guyana to justify an armed conflict.

Colombia said it’s acting “decisively” against transnational organized crime after a senior U.S. official described the country’s president as being sympathetic to drug traffickers and gang members.

The new military deployments have surged to the southern border since Jan. 20 when President Donald Trump ordered the Defense Department to support efforts by the Department of Homeland Security to seal the border.

“It would be a very bad day for the Venezuelan regime if they attacked Guyana or ExxonMobil,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated. “We have a large Navy, and it can reach almost anywhere in the world. And we have ongoing commitments to Guyana.”