US Defense Department reports “two Maduro regime military aircraft” flew close to an American warship in a “highly provocative” act.
The department issued a warning to Venezuela to refrain from any further provocative actions. The Venezuelan aircraft reportedly flew over the US Navy destroyer Jason Dunham and were accused of attempting “to interfere with our counter-narco-terror operations”.
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The Pentagon posted on the X platform stating that two aircraft from the Maduro regime flew near a US Navy vessel in international waters.
It advised against any further efforts by the Venezuelan government to interfere with US military operations related to counter-narcotics and counter-terrorism.
According to The New York Times, US defense officials confirmed that two Venezuelan F-16 fighter jets flew over USS Jason Dunham in the southern Caribbean Sea. The Navy vessel did not engage the jets.
Venezuelan state media did not report on the encounter, which occurred as President Nicolás Maduro announced the first round of activations of the National Militia, bolstered recently by new volunteers in response to escalating US threats.
Noticias Venevision quoted Maduro as saying this was “the first time in history that the communal units of the militia are activated, covering the entire country.”
US President Donald Trump’s administration accused Maduro of links to drug trafficking cartels, despite lacking evidence to support those claims. In August, Washington increased the reward for information leading to Maduro’s arrest to $50 million and deployed naval assets to the Caribbean to target these organizations.
Maduro has long been concerned about US naval deployments near Venezuela, considering them a source of military threat and a potential attempt to bring about regime change.
US forces previously reported an air strike against a suspected drug trafficking speedboat, claiming it belonged to a criminal group connected to Maduro and resulting in 11 fatalities.
Caracas accused the US of extrajudicial killings, asserting that the attack on the speedboat involved no due process. Legal experts have questioned the legitimacy of the strike due to lack of evidence that those on board posed an imminent threat or were armed.
