President Donald Trump dismissed speculation of United States regime change efforts in Venezuela even as he presided over a significant military reinforcement in the Caribbean with the dispatch of 10 F-35 stealth fighter jets to Puerto Rico. The deployment comes amid soaring tensions with Caracas as anti-drug campaigns persist in the area.
When asked about the claim by Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro that the U.S. is seeking “regime change through military threat,” Trump responded unequivocally, “We’re not going to talk about that, but we are going to talk about the fact that you had an election which was a very peculiar election, to say the least.”
In the meantime, Maduro called on Washington publicly to “respect sovereignty, the right to peace, to independence” and affirmed that Venezuela, in spite of differences, is willing to engage in dialogue.
The new F-35s will join an already sizable U.S. military presence in the Caribbean that includes at least seven warships, over 4,500 Marines and sailors, and a nuclear-powered submarine. All those assets are part of a broader campaign against drug traffickers in the region, whom the Trump administration has called “narco-terrorists.”
US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth labelled a recent Venezuelan overflight of a US destroyer “highly provocative,” and Trump retaliated by stating any Venezuelan aircraft posing threat to US ships “will be shot down.” The shoot-down directive resembles the administration’s zero-tolerance policy amid drug-related tensions.
The introduction of the F-35 platform especially enhances the U.S.’s capacity for stealth surveillance and rapid accurate strikes. Stationing these advanced jets at Muñiz Air National Guard Base in Puerto Rico provides strategic air coverage of the southern Caribbean, a hotbed of illegal trafficking from Venezuela.
Increasing the stakes even more, a U.S. missile strike in early September sank a Venezuelan-flagged speedboat that was suspected of carrying Venezuelan narco-traffickers—killing 11 individuals and dramatically increasing military pressure on Maduro.