U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to shoot down any Venezuelan fighter jet that flew close to U.S. ships deployed in the Southern Carribean Sea.
On Thursday, 2 Venezeulan Air Force F-16 fighter jets flew at low altitude over the USS Jason Dunham a U.S. Navy guided-missile destroyer in international waters in the southern Caribbean Sea.
When asked about the incident on Friday, Trump stated "If they do put us in a dangerous position, they'll be shot down.".
On Friday, the U.S. continued its military build up and military drills in the region, U.S. military forces conducted amphibious landing drills in Southern Puerto Rico,
These exercises involved around 4,000 Marines from the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit, included amphibious landing boats and helicopters.
The area where the drills were carried out, in Arroyo, was noted for having similar terrain to the Venezuelan coast and are believed to be drills simulating a landing inside of Venezuela itself.
Additionally, the U.S. ordered the deployment of 10 F-35 fighter jets to Muñiz Air National Guard Base near San Juan, Puerto Rico with additional naval ships, and air assets being deployed to the already large contingent in the region.
While Trump has dismissed claims that the deployment is a prelude to a regime change operation in Venezuela, the large number of U.S. forces being deployed, along with the $50 million bounty on Venezuelan President Nicholas Maduro for alleged drug trafficking, have given worry that the deployment, officially for counter-narcotics purposes, may be for eventually launching an attack on Venezuela.
In 2019, during his first term, Trump publicly supported an attempt by opposition leader, Juan Guaido, who Trump had recognized as the President of Venezuela, when he called for a revolution in the country, which ended up failing within hours of his call, leading to what has been described as Trump’s most embarrassing foreign policy moment of his first term.