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.
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.” The United States responded on Friday by significantly ramping up its regional military presence, deploying 10 F‑35 fighter jets to Puerto Rico, two sources told Reuters.
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.”
— Department of Defense ???????? (@DeptofDefense) September 5, 2025
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.”
The strike occurred against the backdrop of a deepening standoff between President Donald Trump and Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro. In early August, Trump froze Venezuelan government assets — 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 mobilizing more than 15,000 troops along the Colombian border, boasting, “There’s no way they can enter Venezuela.”
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.
The U.S. Department of Justice in the first Trump administration indicted 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.