‘Highly provocative’: Pentagon warns Venezuela after military jets approach US warships; Rubio vows ‘wage wars’ on drug groups

Nicolas Maduro (AP) Marco Rubio (ANI)

The Pentagon said on Thursday that two Venezuelan military aircraft flew close to a US Navy vessel operating in international waters. This comes days after American forces carried out a deadly strike on a boat alleged to be linked to drug trafficking from Venezuela.The US defence department called the move “highly provocative” through a post on X and issued a sharp warning to president Nicolas Maduro’s government. “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. US secretary of state Marco Rubio on Thursday branded the Venezuelan president an indicted “narco-terrorist” and a “fugitive of American justice,” as US warships gathered off South America’s coast.“Maduro is a fugitive of American justice,” Rubio said while visiting Ecuador, as cited by AFP. “We are not just going to hunt for drug dealers with the little fast boats, the president has said he wants to wage war on these groups.”Maduro has declared his country prepared for “a period of armed struggle in defence of the national territory” in the event of a US attack. Venezuela’s military comprises approximately 340,000 personnel and a mixed arsenal that inclues 15 US-made F-16 jets from the 1980s, French and British tanks, a German submarine, and an Italian frigate, along with patrol vessels and landing craft. During the 2000s oil boom, former president Hugo Chavez spent billions on Russian arms. Between 2006 and 2011, Caracas bought 23 fighter jets, helicopters, missile systems and other hardware for $11 billion, according to Evan Ellis of the US Army War College’s Strategic Studies Institute, as reported by AP.Washington has also deployed Navy warships to the southern Caribbean as tensions escalate between US president Donald Trump and Maduro. On Tuesday, American forces destroyed what Trump described as a drug boat linked to a criminal group tied to Maduro, killing 11. Carcas denounced the strike as extrajudicial, saying “they murdered 11 people without due process.”Venezuela has asked the United Nations to step in, denouncing what it describes as a US threat to its sovereignty.