The Pentagon issued a warning to Venezuela’s Maduro government Thursday after two of its F-16 fighter jets flew near the USS Jason Dunham, an Arleigh Burke–class guided-missile destroyer patrolling off the Venezuelan coast as part of U.S. counter-narcotics operations.
President Donald Trump said Tuesday that U.S. forces destroyed a drug boat in international waters off Venezuela. Reports later confirmed that all 11 people killed on board were members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua.
CBS News said it could not confirm what actions, if any, the USS Jason Dunham took in response to the flyover.
After the report was published, the Defense Department confirmed in a statement on X that two Venezuelan aircraft had “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 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 US military.”
U.S. Navy vessels have been deployed off Venezuela as President Donald Trump intensifies efforts against drug cartels amid escalating tensions with President Nicolás Maduro, CBS noted further.
The Trump administration has accused Maduro of working with cartels to traffic narcotics into the United States and recently doubled its reward for his arrest to $50 million. Maduro has denied the allegations, calling the deployment of U.S. warships a “criminal and bloody threat” and responding by sending drones and naval patrols to the coast.
