(Al Jazeera Media Network) United States President Donald Trump had ordered the deployment of F-35 stealth fighter jets to Puerto Rico amid a report he is weighing options for strikes targeting drug cartels operating inside Venezuela, according to news organisations.
Sources in the US told news agencies on Friday that 10 of the advanced fighter jets are being sent to an airfield in Puerto Rico as part of operations against Latin American drug cartels designated “narco-terrorist” organisations by Washington.
American broadcaster CNN, citing multiple sources, reported on Friday that the Trump administration is considering attacks on drug trafficking groups inside Venezuela, which would mark a dramatic escalation in already surging tensions between Washington and Caracas.
Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro called on Friday for the US to “abandon its plan of violent regime change in Venezuela and in all of Latin America.”
The US should “respect sovereignty, the right to peace, to independence,” Maduro said.
“I respect Trump. None of the differences we’ve had can lead to a military conflict,” he said.
“Venezuela has always been willing to converse, to dialogue.”
Maduro has mobilised Venezuela’s military, which numbers about 340,000 soldiers, amid weeks of US threats, and reservists and militia members, which he claimed exceed eight million.
“If Venezuela were attacked, it would immediately enter a period of armed struggle,” Maduro told reporters earlier this week.
Trump said on Friday that the US was “not talking” about regime change in Venezuela.
