President Trump is sending 10 F-35 stealth fighter jets to Puerto Rico to use against what he claims to be state-sponsored drug cartels in the Caribbean. This comes just days after the administration bombed what it claimed was a Venezuelan “drug boat” with 11 Tren de Aragua “narco-traffickers.”
The fighter jets will arrive in Puerto Rico next week, according to sources who spoke with Reuters, and will be part of Trump’s new military campaign in the region.
Trump has claimed that Venezuela is offering direct support to drug traffickers working in and around the United States. The country has also been central to his immigration crackdown.
“We have to protect our country and we’re going to. Venezuela has been a very bad actor. They’ve been sending millions of people into the country. Many of them are Tren de Aragua, some of the worst people anywhere in the world,” Trump said shortly after the boat attack on Tuesday.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth echoed Trump’s comments, claiming that Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro “is acting as the kingpin of a narco state.… He’s involved in the kind of drug running that has affected the American people directly.”
Maduro has denied this frequently, instead focusing on the fact that the U.S. is bombing his citizens and accusing him of sponsoring drug traffickers, all while it increases military pressure against him.
“They are seeking a regime change through military threat,” Maduro told journalists plainly on Monday.
Eighty percent of illegal maritime drug flow comes from the Pacific Ocean, not the Atlantic, where Trump has sent bombs and fighter jets. The administration is seeking to use excuses like the “immediate threat” posed by Venezuela in order to further broaden Trump’s use of the military in situations where he has no legal authority to use it. Just look to his threats to Mexico, his military crackdowns in Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., and his threats against countless other American cities for further confirmation.
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