Illustrative image. (U.S. Air Force photo/Samuel King Jr.)
United States Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on October 3 announced a fourth “lethal, kinetic strike” on a boat in the Caribbean Sea, accusing the vessel of carrying drugs.
Hegseth shared a video of the strike on the X social network, noting that the boat was targeted close to the coast of Venezuela.
“Four male narco-terrorists aboard the vessel were killed in the strike, and no U.S. forces were harmed in the operation. The strike was conducted in international waters just off the coast of Venezuela while the vessel was transporting substantial amounts of narcotics – headed to America to poison our people,” the defense secretary wrote.
“Our intelligence, without a doubt, confirmed that this vessel was trafficking narcotics, the people onboard were narco-terrorists, and they were operating on a known narco-trafficking transit route. These strikes will continue until the attacks on the American people are over!!!!,” he added.
Tensions have been on the rise between Venezuela and the U.S. since August, when the administration of President Donlad Trump doubled the reward for the arrest of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro to $50 million on drug trafficking charges then deployed a large naval force with thousands of marines close to the country’s shores on a so-called “counter narco-terror operation”.
Trump said 11 people had been killed in a strike against a drug-carrying vessel in the southern Caribbean at the start of September. Later in the month, two separate strikes days apart killed a total of six people.
A memo sent to Congress said that the U.S. government had now decided it was in a “non-international armed conflict” with drug cartels, according to reports from earlier this week. The Trump administration is required by law to report to Congress if it will use military force. Thus, the move suggests it plans to use further military action.
In another sign of nearing escalation, Venezuela said on October 2 that it had detected five U.S. fighter jets flying near its Caribbean coast.
Venezuelan Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino described the incident as a “provocation” by Washington that posed a threat to national security.
“They are combat aircraft. Combat aircraft that US imperialism has dared to approach the Venezuelan coast,” Padrino said in comments broadcast on state TV.
Later on the same day, the Venezuelan government issued a statement saying the aircraft had been detected 75 kilometers from its coastline, far from standard territorial waters which are typically 12 nautical miles, or just over 22 kilometers, from the coast.
Footage that surfaced online later revealed that the Venezuelan military had deployed some of its most capable Russian air defense systems. The footage show a Buk-M2E somewhere along the coast near Caracas, and a Pechora-2M moving on a highway near Maracay in the country’s north. The systems can engage aerial targets with a range of 45 and 35 kilometers, respectively.
Click to see full-size image. (Telegram)
Venezuela’s most capable air defense system with a range up to 200 kilometers, the S-300VM, is yet to be spotted on the move.
The U.S. recent escalation against Venezuela is clearly meant to overthrow the regime in Caracas. While Venezuela has already shown willingness to engage diplomatically with Washington with Maduro even sending a letter to Trump, the country continues to prepare for the worst.
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venezuela government, miltary, armed militia in time of national emergency & martial law need to make sure no oil infrastructure falls in pirates hands & no opposition traitor supporting an illegal invasion of their country is allowed “breathing room” the peoples militias should already be “surveying” their homes & whereabouts. latins arent cowards like arabs,muslims. latins of all faiths & from the worldover will descend on venezuela like killer bees to sting pirates
amen to that.
“””””drug boat””””” bs