Illustrative image. (U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Joshua Hastings)
United States Air Force bombers flew again over the Caribbean Sea as President Donald Trump renewed threats of land operations against drug cartels in Venezuela and President Nicolas Maduro announced the deployment of “thousands” of air defenses across the country.
Tensions have been on the rise between Venezuela and the U.S. since August, when the Trump administration doubled the reward for the arrest of Maduro to $50 million on drug trafficking charges then deployed a naval force with thousands of marines close to the country’s shores on a so-called “counter narco-terror operation”.
Earlier this month, a trio of U.S. Air Force’s B-52 bombers were tracked over the Caribbean close to Venezuela in an apparent show of force.
Bombers were spotted again close to Venezuela on October 23, according to Online flight tracking data. Two B-1 bombers departing Dyess Air Force Base in Texas. KC-135 tankers were also tracked leaving MacDill Air Force Base in Florida some 90 minutes later. Soon after, what appeared to be B-1s, using the callsigns BARB21 and BARB22, were subsequently tracked flying near Venezuela.
The available online data suggest that the bombers may have come within around 80 kilometers of the country’s coast, and even closer to the Los Testigos islands.
Click to see full-size image. (Telegram)
Click to see full-size image. (Telegram)
The presence of an RC-135 intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance aircraft, most likely a RC-135V/W Rivet Joints, as well as a WC-130J weather reconnaissance aircraft was also reported close to Venezuela, based on flight tracking data and publicly available air traffic control audio.
In addition, a U.S. Air Force’s E-11A Battlefield Airborne Communications Node (BACN) aircraft was tracked flying in the general direction of Puerto Rico.
Click to see full-size image. (Telegram)
When asked about the bombers later during a press conference in the White House, Trump denied that such a flight took place.
“No, it’s not accurate. It’s false,” Trump told reporters. “But we’re not happy with Venezuela for a lot of reasons.”
During the same press conference, Trump insisted that he could continue to launch strikes against alleged drug traffickers abroad without Congress first passing an official declaration of war.
“I’m not going to necessarily ask for a declaration of war,” he said. “I think we’re just doing to kill people that are bringing drugs into our country. Okay? We’re going to kill them, you know, they’re going to be like, dead.”
He suggested that his administration would soon begin targeting those deemed as cartel members within countries like Venezuela, in addition to continuing to strike alleged drug boats in international waters.
Trump said, however, that he would notify Congress first before beginning any operations on “land,” but contended that the plan would not face any pushback from lawmakers.
Around the same time, the Southern Command released a video showing some of the forces recently deployed near Venezuela to “to disrupt illicit drug trafficking.”
Earlier in the day, Maduro announced that Venezuela had deployed 5,000 Russian-made anti-aircraft missiles in “key air defense positions” across the country.
“Any military force in the world knows the power of the Igla-S and Venezuela has no less than 5,000” of them, Maduro said during an event with military personnel broadcast by Venezolana de Televisión (VTV).
He said that the missiles, light enough to be carried by a single soldier, had been deployed “even in the last mountain, the last town, and the last city of the territory.”
The Igla-S is among the most advanced man-portable air defense systems available on the market today. Compared to older variants, the Igla-S has a longer range, reportedly up to six kilometers, a jamming-resistant infrared seeker and a significantly larger warhead.
Of course, Venezuela possesses even more capable air defense systems, which were also purchased from Russia, including the long-range S-300VM, in addition to the medium-range Buk-M2E and S-125 Pechora-2M. All of these systems have been already deployed, with reports indicating that most of them are protecting Caracas.
Recent developments indicate that the U.S. is finalizing preparations for an attack on Venezuela. While Trump’s latest remarks indicate that the U.S. will only target drug cartels, a clash with the country’s military seems inevitable. The wider goal remains, of course, changing the regime in the country, which possesses the world’s largest oil reserves.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
SouthFront: Analysis and Intelligence
NOW hosted at southfront.press
Previously, SouthFront: Analysis and Intelligence was at southfront.org.
The .org domain name had been blocked by the US (NATO) (https://southfront.press/southfront-org-blocked-by-u-s-controlled-global-internet-supervisor/) globally, outlawed and without any explanation
Back before that, from 2013 to 2015, SouthFront: Analysis and Intelligence was at southfront.com
americunts are morally diseased lgbt inferior species
now even black afro-american people start realizing it, and speaking out in favour of old germany politics and against the jooz and judaism, realizing that the current usraeli politics are all agents of international judaism aka satanism. see: https://short-url.org/hagins1
listen don’t dirty the name of orthodox jews who believe in a god, with the cults dirt and filth zionists talmud supporting inbred degenerates who have always been, since contaminating germany causing ww1-2 and if they have there way, ww3!
join now home based job that pays more than $8,000 per month by doing simple tasks on a laptop or mobile device part-time. last month, i earned $10782 from this job by working 4 hours per day online. very simple jobs to do, and the earnings are insane…
here →→→→→→→→ https://www.earnapp1.com
google is now paying $300 to $500 per hour for doing work online work from home. last paycheck of me said that $20537 from this easy and simple job. its amazing and earns are awesome. no boss, full time freedom and earnings are in front of you.
.
more details for us→→→→ https://www.highprofit1.com
louis farrakhan ?
great how stupid americans can be, and how easy they forget the truth!, the all american fentanyl scandals was created by american pharmaceutical companies! of course then the doctors who prescribed the drug! and you idiots blame china! hysterical! let’s hope not to many american sons require to die to remember colonel oliver north and his cia access to american drug suppliers
another (((doctor’s plot.)))
venezuela needs powerful allies. it must not stand alone against the us empire.
unfortunately, history has shown that decent people are usually very slow to actually take up arms, and only really band together at the very last minute. venezuela should prepare for invasion and occupation and a lengthy guerilla war.
pussy @ss lgbt uncle sam soldiers.
same old, same old. trump and his lying crap. it’s the only thing keeping his cult together, a cult of delusional liars, it’s the only thing they believe in…until his crap hits their gov check. then it’s an all different story. then they never wanted any of this…for them, that is. screw everyone else. of course, there is a silver lining for tramp though isn’t there? no one is talking about epstein are they? the peace idiot is bringing yet another war.
venezuelan anustretched by usa again…heheheh
time that putin leave to play the good cop and supply venezuela with weapons such as pantsir air defense, geran drones, lancet and fiber optic fpv drones, kornet atgm…
iglas aren’t gonna cut it. venezuela needs to prepare for a guerilla war. continuity of government, weapons caches, etc.