Two F-18 fighter jets of the American Air Force flew over the airspace above the Gulf of Venezuela in the Caribbean Sea on Tuesday, for almost 40 minutes, according to the Flightradar24 aviation monitoring service, in a new intensification of Washington's pressure on the government led by Nicolas Maduro, reports EFE.
The flight took place around 12:00 local time (16:00 GMT) in a bay area located about 160 kilometers northeast of Maracaibo, Venezuela's second most populous city.
The machines – identified as two-seat F-18 fighter and ground attack aircraft – undertook a sequence of altitude changes, after which they flew north to a point located approximately 50 kilometers west of Aruba, where the USS Gerald Ford, the largest and most sophisticated aircraft carrier in the US Navy's equipment, is believed to be stationed.
The Pentagon sent this ship a few weeks ago, which joined a contingent that Washington has maintained in the southern Caribbean since the end of the summer and which represents its largest deployment in the region in recent decades, according to Agerpres.
The intrusion into Venezuelan airspace occurred despite the risk represented by the possibility that the Caracas authorities would use Russian-made anti-aircraft batteries.
A US defense official confirmed to the AP that two planes had conducted a “routine training flight” in the area.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive military operations, could not say whether the planes were armed, but noted that they remained in international airspace during the flight.
The military has previously sent B-52 Stratofortress and B-1 Lancer bombers to the region, but these planes have flown up to and along the Venezuelan coast. There was no indication that these aircraft had ever flown as close to the country's territory as the F/A-18 fighter jets did on Tuesday.
The US military launched the “Southern Spear” operation, in which the Trump administration sent approximately 15,000 soldiers to the waters near Venezuela, motivating an anti-drug operation.
At the same time, Washington accuses Maduro, a good part of his government and the top of the Venezuelan army of being in charge of the “Cartel of the Sun”, an organization whose existence the American Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) recently revealed during Trump's term.
Caracas, for its part, insists that the US military deployment is nothing more than a pressure campaign to force a change of government in Venezuela.
