The Pentagon said on Thursday that two Venezuelan military aircraft flew near a U.S. Navy vessel in international waters, describing the incident as a “highly provocative move” by the Venezuelan socialist Maduro regime.
“Today, two Maduro regime military aircraft flew near a U.S. Navy vessel in international waters. This highly provocative move was designed to interfere with our counter narco-terror operations,” the Pentagon statement said.
“The cartel running Venezuela is strongly advised not to pursue any further effort to obstruct, deter, or interfere with counter-narcotics and counter-terror operations carried out by the U.S. military,” the Pentagon warned.
According to ABC News, the Venezuelan aircraft were identified as two F-16 fighters. They flew over the USS Jason Dunham, one of the Aegis guided-missile destroyers presently deployed in Caribbean international waters alongside other vessels and thousands of troops as part of President Donald Trump’s efforts to combat cartels in the region and to curb the flow of drugs entering the United States.
Over the past few days, Venezuela’s socialist dictator Nicolás Maduro and officials from his regime have widely condemned the U.S. military deployment and have repeatedly claimed, without evidence, that the drug-fighting actions are instead part of a purported plot to “invade” Venezuela and oust Maduro from power.
Maduro has ostentatiously commenced “preparations” for the purported “invasion” plans and threatened the United States with an “armed struggle” should the United States attack Venezuela.
Maduro is actively wanted by U.S. authorities on multiple narco-terrorism charges and stands accused of being a top member — if not the main leader — of the Cartel of the Suns, an international cocaine trafficking operation overseen by members of the ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) and officials from the Venezuelan military.
In late July, U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent announced that the United States included the Cartel of the Suns in its list of Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT) entities. Days later, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi announced that the United States doubled its bounty on information that can lead to Maduro’s arrest and/or conviction from $25 million to $50 million.
The Pentagon’s Thursday statement denouncing the actions of the two Venezuelan military aircraft comes days after Trump announced the U.S. military carried out a precision strike against a vessel loaded with drugs in international waters, killing 11 members of the Tren de Aragua terrorist organization. Trump and other members of his administration published footage of the strike:
Members of the Maduro regime, such as Communications Minister Freddy Ñáñez, Interior Minister and suspected drug lord Diosdado Cabello, and Attorney General Tarek WIlliam Saab have called the footage into question, claiming it was instead a “fake” video made with the use of artificial intelligence (AI) tools.
This week, Ñáñez published a purported “analysis” of the footage allegedly made using Google’s Gemini AI tool to deem the video as “fake.” Venezuelan AG Saab claimed on a Thursday press conference that the strike “did not happen” and dismissed the footage as an “animated video.”
“If the incident had occurred, which it did not, the first thing to do would have been to try to stop that alleged vessel, without destroying it without a prior combat, the coordinates of which have not been disclosed, where it came from, how it left, who was there. Just an animated video,” Saab reportedly said.
Despite the claims of the Maduro regime officials, the Venezuelan outlet El Pitazo reported on Thursday, citing local sources, that the drug-loaded vessel departed from the Venezuelan coastal town of San Juan de Unare, Sucre.
According to El Pitazo, eight out of the 11 men on board were residents of San Juan de Unare, and the other three hailed from neighboring towns. The outlet explained that San Juan de Unare’s residents are in “turmoil,” as several of the crew members were well known in the town, and dismissed the Maduro regime officials’ claim that the video of the strike is fake.
El Pitazo further detailed that the destroyed vessel was a “flipper” speedboat, whose unidentified owner monitored its route using GPS. The son of the owner’s boat was reportedly among the 11 men who were killed.
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