Venezuelan strongman Nicolás Maduro stunned observers this weekend after launching into an off-key rendition of John Lennon’s “Imagine” — a surreal, almost pleading performance delivered as the United States intensifies military preparations and considers direct strikes against his regime.

The bizarre moment, captured on state television, shows Maduro addressing supporters about what he called a looming “U.S.-backed coup.” Without warning, the embattled autocrat — who is wanted in the United States on narco-terrorism charges and faces a $50 million U.S. bounty — transitions into singing the iconic anti-war anthem. He then lip-syncs to a backing track, flashing peace signs to the crowd.

“Do everything for peace. As John Lennon used to say, right?” Maduro declared. After the impromptu performance, he urged “younger people” to study the lyrics. “It’s an anthem for all eras and generations,” he said, calling Lennon a “gift to humanity.”

The strange spectacle came as Washington accelerates military pressure on Caracas, openly preparing for possible action against Venezuela’s narco-trafficking networks — and, potentially, Maduro’s government itself.

This past week, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced “Southern Spear,” a new military campaign targeting what Washington calls “narco-terrorists” operating across the Caribbean and the eastern Pacific. U.S. officials argue these cartel-militia networks are central to Maduro’s survival.

According to CBS News, senior military leaders have presented President Donald Trump with updated options for Venezuela, including possible land strikes. While no final decision has been made, the reporting describes U.S. planning as “real, active and accelerating.”

The military buildup is already visible.

The USS Gerald Ford, the U.S. Navy’s largest and most advanced aircraft carrier, has moved into the U.S. Southern Command region. It joins an expanded American flotilla that includes destroyers, special-operations elements, warplanes, and forward-positioned F-35s.

U.S. forces have already struck at least 21 suspected narcotrafficking boats, killing over 80 people across the Caribbean and eastern Pacific in two months. Two survivors were repatriated and one released for lack of evidence.

Senator Lindsey Graham said the stepped-up operations show Trump is “deadly serious” about stopping the flow of Venezuelan-linked narcotics. He added that Maduro’s days in power are “numbered.”

“Maduro is an illegitimate leader… a drug trafficker indicted in U.S. courts,” Graham wrote on X.

The Maduro regime has responded with escalating rhetoric and military posturing. Venezuela has launched its largest military drill in years, deploying 200,000 troops nationwide.

Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino accused U.S. forces of carrying out “extrajudicial killings at sea,” saying American naval crews are “murdering defenseless people… executing them without due process.”

Maduro called upcoming U.S. military drills in Trinidad and Tobago “irresponsible” and accused Trump of planning a “criminal war.”

Padrino vowed Venezuela would resist any American assault with “a community united to defend this nation, to the death.”

Colombia’s left-wing president Gustavo Petro — previously a reluctant critic of Maduro — announced that Bogotá would suspend intelligence sharing with Washington as long as U.S. naval forces continue sinking suspected narcotrafficking vessels. Petro called the U.S. boat strikes “illegal” and “harmful to human rights.”

The diplomatic fallout underscores how rapidly the crisis is widening beyond Venezuela’s borders.

Maduro’s rendition of “Imagine” — at once theatrical, plaintive, and bizarre — appeared aimed at projecting himself as a peacemaker even as his government prepares for confrontation.

But with U.S. warships advancing, military drills underway on both sides, and internal instability rising in Caracas, the spectacle only underscored the increasingly precarious position of a leader long accused of clinging to power through repression, narcotics alliances, and foreign backing.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)