Venezuelan Defense Minister Says US Fighter Jets Violated Country’s Airspace
A Royal Air Force F-35 lands at the Farnborough International Air Show in Farnborough, England, Monday, July 22, 2024
Five combat aircraft, presumably F-35s, were detected by the Venezuelan air defense system in the country’s airspace, Venezuelan Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino Lopez said. “In the Maiquetia region, we detected more than five vectors with flight characteristics of 400 knots, flying at an altitude of 35,000 feet. These are combat aircraft that North American imperialism dared to bring close to Venezuelan shores … This is rudeness, this is a provocation, this is a threat to national security,” Lopez said on Thursday. The minister added that pilots of an international airline confirmed the presence of military aircraft, reporting sightings of F-35s off the Caribbean coast. “We’ve never seen such a deployment. We know that F-35s are stationed in Puerto Rico, but approaching Venezuelan territory – we want them to know we’re aware of this and that it doesn’t frighten us,” Lopez said. The minister warned the United States about the risks of “miscalculation” and assured that the country is ready to repel any aggression. On Saturday, NBC News reported the United States was considering military strikes targeting drug cartels inside Venezuela and that the strikes could happen in the next several weeks. 
WorldVenezuelan Parliament Ratified Strategic Partnership Agreement With Russia1 October, 07:31 GMTEarlier in the month, the president said that the US military conducted a second strike against “confirmed narcoterrorists from Venezuela” when they were in international waters transporting illegal drugs to the US. On August 19, White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said that US President Donald Trump was ready to use “every element of American power” to combat drug trafficking, without ruling out the possibility of a military operation in Venezuela. The statement was made following reports that Washington was deploying over 4,000 Marines and sailors to the waters off Latin America and the Caribbean to counter drug cartels.
