Fighter jets are being sent to the American territory amid growing tensions in the region, where the Pentagon said on Thursday that two Venezuelan military planes flew close to an American ship.
The decision also follows an American missile strike on Tuesday against a boat in the Caribbean Sea that killed eleven people, according to the Trump administration Venezuelan drug smugglers.
What's going to stop them is that you blow them up, when you get rid of them. If you're on a boat full of cocaine or fentanyl heading towards the USA, you're an immediate threat to the USA, said the American Foreign Minister Marco Rubio in Mexico on Wednesday.
The F-35 aircraft will arrive in the US territory of Puerto Rico next week and are part of a comprehensive military effort in Latin America. Trump has already sent at least eight warships and other military resources to the region.
The US Department of Defense has warned Venezuela not to interfere with American military operations, while President Nicolás Maduro has accused the US of trying to carry out a regime change through military threats.
Last month, the US increased the reward to the equivalent of 535 million kronor for information that can lead to Maduro's arrest. Venezuela's president is accused of collaborating with Colombia's guerrilla in cocaine production.
Maduro – whose latest election in 2024 was seen as illegitimate by Washington – has condemned the US escalation as "the greatest threat our continent has seen in 100 years".
