Pentagon warns Venezuela as 2 military aircraft fly near US Navy ship

In a move described as “highly provocative,” two Venezuelan military aircraft flew close to a US Navy ship in international waters, according to the US Department of Defense.

The Venezuelan government issued a warning to stop further provocative moves in a statement released late on Thursday, blaming the Venezuelan aircraft’s alleged involvement with the guided-missile destroyer Jason Dunham as an attempt to “interfere with our counter-narco-terror operations.”

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The Pentagon stated in a post on the X platform that two Maduro-style military aircraft flew close to a US Navy vessel today in international waters.

The Pentagon advised the cartel operating in Venezuela to refrain from further efforts to obstruct, deter, or interfere with US military counter-narcotics and counter-terror operations.

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A US ship did not engage the aircraft, according to a US defense official who was cited by The New York Times as saying that two Venezuelan F-16 fighter jets flew over the guided-missile destroyer Jason Dunham in the southern Caribbean Sea.

Venezuelan state media did not mention the alleged US-Venezuela encounter because it covered President Nicolas Maduro’s announcement of the country’s National Militia’s first round of operation, whose ranks have been increased by new volunteers in recent weeks as Washington’s threats grow.

According to Maduro, Venezuela’s Noticias Venevision news outlet, it was the “first time in history that the communal units of the militia will be activated, spanning the national map from north to south, from east to west, down to the final community.”

The US has so far denied any evidence that Maduro is connected to or has any connections to drug trafficking cartels in Venezuela and the region.

Washington increased the reward in August to $50 million for information leading to Maduro’s arrest over allegations that he had been a part of a cocaine trafficking operation. In a move allegedly aimed at drug cartels, the US quickly deployed several ships and a nuclear-powered submarine to the Caribbean and Venezuelan waters.

Maduro has been expressing concern over the US’s recent naval deployment in the Southern Caribbean, claiming that it was “seeking a regime change through military threat” and promising that if Washington attacked, he would ” mobilize the nation and declare it a republic in arms” for weeks.

In a rumored airstrike in the Caribbean on Tuesday, US forces apparently launched a speedboat allegedly used for drug trafficking.

According to Trump, the boat belongs to a violent group linked to Maduro, and 11 people have been killed in the attack.

Washington allegedly carried out extrajudicial killings, accusing Caracas of killing 11 people without a trial. Legal experts have also raised questions about the attack’s legality because the Trump administration failed to provide any proof that the US was in imminent danger from those aboard the ship or that the passengers were even armed.