‘We’re strong on drugs,’ said Trump. ‘We don’t want drugs killing our people.’
Nearly a dozen F-35 stealth fighter jets have been positioned at a Puerto Rico airbase, a source familiar with the situation confirmed to The Epoch Times.
This marks the latest example of the United States’ continued buildup of its military presence in the Caribbean, where there is a growing effort to combat drug cartel operations that have triggered a rise in tensions with Venezuela.
This disclosure of 10 F-35 fighters in the Caribbean comes shortly after the Pentagon announced that two Venezuelan military planes flew over a U.S. Navy vessel in the Caribbean Sea, calling it a “highly provocative move” intended to interfere with ongoing “counter narco-terror operations.”
U.S. military forces struck a boat on Sept. 2 that the White House said departed from Venezuela, was carrying drugs, and was occupied by 11 members of Tren de Aragua, a transnational gang known for drug and human trafficking that has been designated by the U.S. government as a foreign terrorist organization.
“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 added, although it did not provide any further details on the flyover.
The news of the F-35s also follows the arrival of more U.S. warships in the Caribbean, with some spotted passing through the Panama Canal from the Pacific on Aug. 30.
On Aug. 28, Venezuela complained about the U.S. naval buildup to United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres and accused Washington of breaking the founding U.N. Charter.
“It’s a massive propaganda operation to justify what the experts call kinetic action—meaning military intervention in a country which is a sovereign and independent country and is no threat to anyone,” Venezuelan U.N. Ambassador Samuel Moncada told reporters after meeting with Guterres.
Trump said during a Sept. 5 press conference in the Oval Office that the military buildup is a warning to those who would traffic drugs including deadly opioids into the United States.
“We’re strong on drugs,” he said. ”We don’t want drugs killing our people.”
