The United States Department of Defense has condemned what it describes as a “highly provocative” overflight by Venezuelan fighter jets of a US Navy destroyer operating in the Caribbean.
According to the Pentagon, two armed Venezuelan F-16 fighter jets flew close to the USS Jason Dunham, an Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer, during a patrol in international waters. The ship is part of a flotilla of US warships recently dispatched to the region by President Donald Trump as part of expanded counter-narcotics operations.
Pentagon reaction
The US Department of Defense – soon to be renamed the Department of War by an executive order signed by President Trump – blasted the action in a statement:
“Today, two Maduro regime military aircraft flew near a US Navy vessel in international waters. This highly provocative move was designed to interfere with our counter narco-terror operations,” the department said. “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.”
Venezuela has yet to comment on the Pentagon’s latest accusation.
Escalating tensions
Washington accuses Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro of overseeing a large-scale drug trafficking network. In August 2025, the Trump administration increased the reward for Maduro’s arrest to $50 million.
In early September 2025, Trump claimed on his Truth Social platform that US forces had struck a “drug boat” in the Caribbean, killing 11 people he described as “narco-terrorists” linked to Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan criminal organization that the administration has designated as a terrorist group.
https://t.co/o5xOQ6HRFg pic.twitter.com/s9ktAlDQUi
— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) September 2, 2025
“The strike took place while the boat was in international waters, transporting narcotics bound for the United States,” Trump wrote.
Venezuelan officials strongly rejected the operation. Venezuela’s Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello accused the US of committing “extrajudicial executions” and vowed to respond.
3 comments
So we allowed “armed” F-16s from a hostile fraudulent and illegitimate government (Venezuela) to approach a US surface assett without taking any action? and now we are whining about it in public? I say lost opportunity to reduce their airframe count.
The President of the United States, himself a collection of crime and corruption, offers a reward for the capture of the head of a sovereign and legitimate government (Venezuela), then the US Navy, in a provocative act, approaches Venezuelan waters, murders the occupants of a boat without proof of guilt or trial, but protests the flight of Venezuelan fighter jets over its fleet!
What a wonderful world!
Very dumb comment