Venezuela denounces the presence of US fighter jets near its airspace

WashingtonThe United States continues to escalate tensions with Venezuela. Venezuelan Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino López denounced this Thursday the presence of five US fighter jets flying very close to Venezuela, specifically on the country's northern central coast. "It's a provocation, a great threat to the nation's security," Padrino denounced.

The South American country's air defense system has detected "more than five aircraft with flight characteristics of 400 knots and flying at an altitude of 35,000 feet." "They are fighter jets that US imperialism has dared to bring close to the Venezuelan coast," the minister said.

The presence of the fighter jets adds to the threat. to the deployment by the United States of a fleet of three ACS destroyers with guided missiles to the limits of Venezuelan waters last month, and the sinking of three boats that were leaving of the country and that, according to the US government, were transporting drugs.

For over a month, the Trump administration has launched a pressure campaign against the Nicolás Maduro regime, accusing it of collaborating with the criminal gang Cartel of the Suns. The Venezuelan group is part of the list drawn up by Trump in January by executive order, with which he reclassified a whole series of cartels – including MS-13 and the Tren de Aragua – to declare them terrorist organizations.

The reclassification already raised a few eyebrows given the possibility that Trump would use it as a pretext to take military action outside his borders, in a sort of reissue of the war on terror against Al Qaeda that the White House carried out after the 9/11 attacks. From alleged terrorist groups, the US military killed the 14 people aboard a boat crossing the Caribbean after accusing them of being drug traffickers. In the new administrative language, they would be "narcoterrorists."

Then, Maduro warned that "if Venezuela were attacked" it would declare itself "in armed struggle and a republic in arms." This Thursday, the Minister of Defense reiterated the warning: "Do not make the mistake of militarily attacking Venezuela." Padrino assured that "we have never seen this deployment of F-35 class aircraft."

The US, at war with the cartels

Despite Venezuela's warnings of entering into armed conflict against the US, Trump appears to have gotten ahead of Maduro. In a secret communication to Congress sent this week, the US president "determined" that the United States is in an "armed conflict" with drug cartels, which he rebranded as terrorist organizations, according to a report. The New York Times.

With the notification to Congress, Trump intends to pave the way for the invocation of extraordinary war powers. In an armed conflict, as defined by international law, a country can legally kill its war enemies even when they pose no threat, as well as detain them indefinitely and deny them trials. To accelerate his campaign of mass deportations, in March the president invoked the Alien Enemies Act to deport more than 200 Venezuelans and Salvadorans to El Salvador on charges of belonging to MS-13 and the Tren de Aragua.