The United States has accused Venezuela of a provocative military maneuver after two Venezuelan fighter jets flew close to an American Navy destroyer in international waters of the southern Caribbean Sea.
In a statement released late Thursday, the US Department of Defense said the incident involved two Venezuelan F-16 aircraft flying near the guided-missile destroyer USS Jason Dunham.
The Pentagon described the encounter as “highly provocative” and warned the government of President Nicolás Maduro against further attempts to obstruct American military operations in the region.
“Today, two Maduro regime military aircraft flew near a US Navy vessel in international waters,” the Pentagon said in a post on X, formerly Twitter. “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.”
A US defense official, quoted by The New York Times, clarified that while the Venezuelan jets buzzed over the vessel, the destroyer did not respond or engage. The official added that the US ship was conducting counter-narcotics patrols when the incident occurred.
The Venezuelan government, however, has not publicly commented on the reported flyover. State media instead focused on President Maduro’s announcement of the first nationwide activation of Venezuela’s National Militia.
According to Noticias Venevisión, the militia recently expanded with recruits and is being mobilized across the country “from north to south, from east to west, down to the last community” in response to what Caracas describes as growing threats from Washington.
US President Donald Trump’s administration has accused Maduro of operating and having close connections to drug trafficking cartels in Venezuela and the region, claims for which the US has thus far failed to offer any evidence.
In August, Washington doubled a reward to $50m for information leading to Maduro’s arrest over allegations of his involvement in cocaine trafficking. Shortly after, the US deployed several ships and a nuclear-powered submarine to the Caribbean and waters off the coast of Venezuela in an operation said to target drug cartels.
The incident marks the latest flashpoint in already tense relations between the United States and Venezuela, with Washington accusing the Maduro government of criminal activity and human rights abuses, while Caracas insists US military presence in the Caribbean is an act of aggression.
Maduro has raised alarm for weeks over the US naval deployment in the Southern Caribbean, claiming the US was “seeking a regime change through military threat” and promising that if attacked by Washington, he would mobilise the country and declare “a republic in arms”.
On Tuesday, US forces destroyed an alleged drug trafficking speedboat in an apparent air strike in the Caribbean.
Trump said the boat belonged to a criminal organisation tied to Maduro, and the attack had killed 11 people.
Caracas accused Washington of committing extrajudicial killings, saying “they murdered 11 people without due process”. Legal experts have also raised questions about the legality of the attack, as the Trump administration did not provide any evidence that the US was under imminent threat from those on board the vessel or that people on board were even armed.
Legal experts said that in the eyes of many people, those on the boat were civilians, and the attack would be seen as an extrajudicial killing by US forces.
Source: Al Jazeera and News Agencies
