Days later, two Venezuelan fighter jets buzzed the USS Jason Dunham in what the Pentagon called a “highly provocative” maneuver. Caracas denounced the strike as a prelude to regime change and mobilized tens of thousands of troops, with President Nicolás Maduro vowing to create a “republic in arms” if the United States invades.
The Trump administration insists the action was defensive. But the escalation – from maritime policing to the deployment of F-35 stealth fighters in Puerto Rico – suggests something more profound: Washington is turning its war on drugs into a geopolitical confrontation, one that risks colliding head-on with China’s growing role in Latin America.
