Yesterday, two Venezuelan fighter jets buzzed a US Navy ship in international waters after Trump destroyed a Venezuelan drug ship this week and killed 11 Tren de Aragua gangbangers.
In response to this, the Pentagon just put 10 US fighter jets in Puerto Rico to fight the drug cartels.
Here’s more from The Hill:
The U.S. military is deploying 10 fighter jets to Puerto Rico to help fight the Latin American cartels, coming shortly after two Venezuelan military aircraft flew close to a U.S. Navy ship in the region.
The Department of Defense (DOD) has ordered 10 F-35 fighter planes to be deployed to Puerto Rico to help combat the drug cartels, a source familiar with the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity told The Hill’s sister network NewsNation.
On Thursday, two “[Venezuelan President Nicolás] Maduro regime” aircraft flew near a Navy ship in international waters, with the Pentagon characterizing it as a “highly provocative move” that it said 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,” the Pentagon said late Thursday.
A U.S. official told Reuters that two Venezuelan F-16s flew over the USS Jason Dunham.
Apart from the Dunham, the Trump administration has deployed at least seven more battleships to the Caribbean, along with more than 4,000 Marines and sailors in its effort to combat drug cartels in the region.
The deployment of the fighter jets comes as tensions between Washington and Caracas are rising, particularly after the U.S. military took out a “drug vessel” in the Caribbean on Tuesday, killing 11 people the Trump administration said were members of Tren de Aragua, a transnational gang from Venezuela that is designated as a foreign terrorist organization by the U.S. government.
If Venezuela really wants to get into it with the United States, then they are about to bite off way more than they can chew. Trump is shutting down their drug smuggling into the United States one way or the other.