CARACAS - Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on Saturday called for a permanent vigil and mobilization in the country's eastern region in response to the announcement of joint military exercises by the United States and Trinidad and Tobago in the Caribbean.

"I once again call on all the people of the eastern states -- from southern Bolivar, Delta Amacuro, Monagas, Sucre, Anzoategui and Nueva Esparta -- to maintain perfect unity among citizens, military forces and police, to stand vigil and march in the streets with the Venezuelan flag held high," Maduro said during a public event in Petare, in the northern state of Miranda.

He stressed that the call serves as a directive to all social and political sectors to remain alert and not fall for provocations.

Maduro made the remarks after Trinidad and Tobago announced a new deployment of military exercises with the United States, "using its waters off the coast of Sucre state.”

He criticized the move as an attempt to threaten the regional peace, and reiterated his call for mobilization "with patriotic fervor" to reject what he described as aggression.

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Trinidad and Tobago announced on Friday that it would resume military exercises with the United States, which maintains a deployment in the Caribbean. This marks the second joint drill in less than a month.

Maduro also addressed the American public, urging them to halt "the frenzied hand of those who order a war to be waged in South America and the Caribbean."