The United States has directed the deployment of 10 F-35 fighter jets to an airfield in Puerto Rico for operations targeting drug cartels, two informed sources said, a decision expected to heighten regional tensions.
The advanced fighter jets will be added to an already bristling U.S. military presence in the southern Caribbean as President Donald Trump carries out a campaign pledge to crack down on groups he blames for funnelling drugs into the United States.
Friday’s development comes three days after U.S. forces attacked a boat that Trump said was carrying “massive amounts of drugs” from Venezuela, killing 11 people. The strike appeared to set the stage for a sustained military campaign in Latin America.
The sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the 10 fighter jets are being sent to conduct operations against designated narco-terrorist organisations operating in the southern Caribbean. The planes should arrive in the area by late next week, they said.
The U.S. has deployed warships in the southern Caribbean in recent weeks, with the aim of carrying out Trump’s crackdown.
Seven U.S. warships and one nuclear-powered fast attack submarine are either in the region or expected to be there soon, carrying more than 4,500 sailors and Marines. U.S. Marines and sailors from the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit have been carrying out amphibious training and flight operations in southern Puerto Rico.
The buildup has put pressure on Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, whom U.S. Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth has called “effectively a kingpin of a drug narco state.”
Maduro, at a rare news conference in Caracas on Monday, said the United States is “seeking regime change through military threat.”
U.S. officials have not said what legal justification was used for Tuesday’s air strike on the boat or what drugs were on board.
Trump said on Tuesday, without providing evidence, that the U.S. military had identified the crew of the vessel as members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, which Washington designated a terrorist group in February.
US Vows Continued Actions
Senior U.S. national security officials announced on Wednesday that military operations against cartels will continue, signalling a sustained campaign in Latin America despite unanswered questions about a deadly strike on a Venezuelan vessel.
The U.S. military killed 11 people on Tuesday in a strike on a vessel from Venezuela allegedly carrying illegal narcotics, in the first known operation since President Donald Trump’s recent deployment of warships to the southern Caribbean.
Little is known about the strike, including what legal justification was used or what drugs were on board, but U.S. Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said operations would continue.
“We’ve got assets in the air, assets in the water, assets on ships, because this is a deadly serious mission for us, and it won’t stop with just this strike,” Hegseth said on FOX & Friends.
“Anyone else trafficking in those waters who we know is a designated narco terrorist will face the same fate,” Hegseth said.
He declined to provide details on how the operation was carried out, saying they were classified. It is unknown whether the vessel was destroyed using a drone, torpedo, or by some other means.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, speaking in Mexico City, said similar strikes will happen again.
“Maybe it’s happening right now, I don’t know, but the point is the president of the United States is going to wage war on narco terrorist organisations,” Rubio said.
(With inputs from Reuters)
