Five U.S. F-35 fighter jets landed this Saturday in Puerto Rico after the president of the North American country, Donald Trump, ordered last week that 10 stealth aircraft join a military reinforcement in the Caribbean to supposedly counter drug cartels, reports Reuters.
Videos and photos of the landing of the planes at the former Roosevelt Roads United States Navy base located in the city of Ceiba have been spread on the Web.
Media outlets report that in recent days Osprey helicopters and aircraft have been seen at the base, as well as other U.S. transport aircraft and military personnel.
According to Reuters sources, last week, the current Administration ordered the deployment of 10 F-35 fighter jets to Puerto Rico to conduct operations against drug cartels. In announcing the plan to send more aircraft to the Caribbean, President Donald Trump maintained that Washington was not trying to change the government of Venezuela.
The arrival of fighter jets comes after U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth visited Puerto Rico, where he addressed the marines deployed in the Caribbean and declared that the ongoing mobilization is not a training exercise, but a mission on behalf of the national interests of the North American country to end drug trafficking.
Previously, on this same day, Caracas denounced the “illegal and hostile” assault of a US military ship against a small fishing boat in Venezuelan waters.
Caracas’s Stance
Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro has declared that the accusations of drug trafficking against his country are a lie “as crude and false as that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction.” In that context, he indicated that “Venezuela is not a relevant country in terms of drug trafficking” and stressed, citing UN data, that all cocaine is produced in Colombia, which “has more than 400,000 hectares of coca leaves.”
