<p>Venezuela on Thursday answered a U.S. strike on a suspected drug-running vessel by flying two fighter jets over a U.S. destroyer that was conducting anti-narco-terrorism patrols off its coast.</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">The two armed Venezuelan F-16 fighter jets flew over the USS Jason Dunham, an Aegis guided-missile destroyer, in an action that Defense Department officials described as a “show of force.” <span data-testid="webpage-citation-pill">The United States responded on Friday by <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/us-deploying-10-fighter-jets-puerto-rico-drug-cartel-fight-sources-say-2025-09-05/?utm_source=chatgpt.com">significantly ramping up</a> its regional military presence, deploying 10 F‑35 fighter jets to Puerto Rico, two sources told Reuters.</span></p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">The Pentagon released a warning on X, saying on Thursday: “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 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 US military.”</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
<p lang="zxx" dir="ltr"><a href="https://t.co/PSxm3uRsfM">pic.twitter.com/PSxm3uRsfM</a></p>
<p>&mdash; Department of Defense 🇺🇸 (@DeptofDefense) <a href="https://twitter.com/DeptofDefense/status/1963775938233299235?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 5, 2025</a></p></blockquote>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">On Tuesday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio confirmed the American strike on the alleged narcotics smuggling boat that reportedly killed 11 people on board, posting on X, “Today the U.S. military conducted a lethal strike in the southern Caribbean against a drug vessel which had departed from Venezuela and was being operated by a designated narco-terrorist organization.”</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">The strike occurred against the backdrop of a deepening standoff between President Donald Trump and Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro. In early August, Trump <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-administration-freezes-venezuela-government-assets-in-escalation-of-tensions/?utm_source=chatgpt.com">froze Venezuelan government assets</a> — the most sweeping action against Maduro’s regime in decades — and slapped a $50 million bounty on Maduro, calling him a global drug trafficker. Maduro responded by <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/venezuela-maduro-says-no-way-us-can-invade-warships-deployed/">mobilizing</a> more than 15,000 troops along the Colombian border, boasting, “There’s no way they can enter Venezuela.”</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">In August, Trump directed the Pentagon to deploy U.S. troops and warships amid mounting “threats to U.S. national security from specially designated narco‑terrorist organizations” operating in the region, according to Reuters<em>.</em></p>
<p data-start="475" data-end="516">The U.S. Department of Justice in the first Trump administration<a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-52053799?utm_source=chatgpt.com"> indicted</a> Maduro and 14 senior officials on charges of narco-terrorism, drug trafficking, money laundering, and corruption in 2020. It alleged a decades-long alliance with the FARC (a Marxist guerrilla group once considered one of the most powerful insurgent and narco-terrorist organizations in Latin America) to flood the United States with cocaine via the so-called Cartel of the Suns — a military-run trafficking network. A $15 million reward was offered for information leading to Maduro’s arrest.</p>

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