[snip]
The Pentagon released a warning on X, saying on Thursday: “Today, two Maduro regime military aircraft flew near a U.S. Navy vessel in international waters. This highly provocative move was designed to interfere with our counter narco-terror operations. 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.”
On Tuesday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio confirmed the American strike on the alleged narcotics smuggling boat that reportedly killed 11 people on board, posting on X, “Today the U.S. military conducted a lethal strike in the southern Caribbean against a drug vessel which had departed from Venezuela and was being operated by a designated narco-terrorist organization.”
[snip]
In August, Trump directed the Pentagon to deploy U.S. troops and warships amid mounting “threats to U.S. national security from specially designated narco‑terrorist organizations” operating in the region, according to Reuters.
The U.S. Department of Justice in the first Trump administration indicted Maduro and 14 senior officials on charges of narco-terrorism, drug trafficking, money laundering, and corruption in 2020. It alleged a decades-long alliance with the FARC (a Marxist guerrilla group once considered one of the most powerful insurgent and narco-terrorist organizations in Latin America) to flood the United States with cocaine via the so-called Cartel of the Suns — a military-run trafficking network. A $15 million reward was offered for information leading to Maduro’s arrest.
* Original Article:
https://www.dailywire.com/news/venezuela-taunts-u-s-navy-pentagon-fires-back