A top Russian security official accused the US on Tuesday of deploying troops in Colombia and Puerto Rico ahead of a planned military intervention in Venezuela to topple President Nicolas Maduro.

“The United States is preparing a military invasion of an independent state,” Nikolai Patrushev, secretary of the Russian Security Council, was quoted as saying in an interview with the weekly Argumenty i Fakty, according to Reuters.

“The transfer of American special operations forces to Puerto Rico, the landing of US forces in Colombia and other facts indicate the Pentagon is reinforcing its troops in the region in order to use them in an operation to remove … Maduro from power,” he added.

Venezuela has been plunged into a political and economic crisis after Juan Guaidó, president of the country’s National Assembly, declared himself interim president in opposition to Maduro’s government.

The US and 50 other countries have backed Guaidó, while China and Russia have stood by Maduro’s government.

Patrushev said Washington had asked Moscow for consultations on Venezuela and that Russia had agreed, but that American officials had repeatedly postponed them under false pretexts.

US officials have previously dismissed Russian allegations about Washington’s plans for Venezuela as baseless “propaganda.”