There is “no doubt” that US president Donald Trump is trying to overthrow the Venezuelan government, the country’s attorney general has told the BBC.

Tarek William Saab, a close ally of President Nicolás Maduro, says Trump wants to turn Venezuela into a “colony” of the US.

Trump has accused Maduro of being the leader of a drug-trafficking organisation, which he denies, and there are fears in Venezuela that a US military build-up is aimed at removing the long-time Trump opponent from power.

The US says it has killed at least 43 people in strikes on alleged drug boats off South America, and Trump has said the US is “looking at land now” after getting “the sea very well under control”.

When asked about the possibility of a land invasion of Venezuela, Saab told the BBC’s Newshour programme that “it shouldn’t happen, but we are prepared”.

He added that Venezuela was “still ready to resume dialogue” with the US, despite its “illegitimate” fight against drug trafficking.

The US is among many nations that do not recognise Maduro as Venezuela’s legitimate leader, after the last election in 2024 was widely dismissed as neither free nor fair. Opposition tallies from polling stations showed its candidate had won by a landslide.

But Saab said the US wanted regime change in Venezuela, accusing it of hoping to seize the country’s natural resources, including reserves of gold, oil and copper.

US Congress members on both sides of the political aisle have raised concerns over the legality of Trump’s strikes on boats and his authority to order them.

Republican Senator Lindsey Graham told reporters on Sunday that future land strikes were a “real possibility”, and that Trump told him he plans to brief members of Congress on future military operations when he got back from Asia.

Over the past two months, the US has been steadily building up a force of warships, fighter jets, marines, spy planes, bombers and drones in the Caribbean, which it has framed as part of a crackdown on drug-trafficking and “narco-terrorists”.

Many analysts believe this is also part of a wider intimidation campaign seeking to remove President Maduro from power.

The Venezuelan leader has accused the US of “fabricating war” after it also ordered the deployment of the world’s largest warship to the Caribbean, the USS Gerald R Ford, which is yet to arrive.

On Sunday, guided-missile destroyer USS Gravely arrived in Trinidad and Tobago, a dual-island nation just off Venezuela’s coast, as part of the US’s largest military deployment to the Caribbean Sea in decades.

It is officially visiting until Thursday to conduct joint training and exercises.

Venezuela’s government has since issued a statement condemning what it called “a military provocation by Trinidad and Tobago in coordination with the CIA”.

Venezuela also claimed that they had captured a “mercenary group with direct information from the US intelligence agency”, and alleged that a “false flag attack is underway” in the waters between Venezuela and Trinidad and Tobago.

A false flag operation is a political or military action carried out with the intention of blaming an opponent for it.

Venezuela’s President Maduro has made accusations of false flag attacks before, including a plan to plant explosives in the US embassy in Caracas in early October.

Additional reporting by Ione Wells