Venezuela’s defence minister has said the detection of US fighter planes in Venezuelan airspace is being seen as a threat by the United States.
Caracas authorities on Thursday criticised what they called an “illegal incursion” by the US fighter jets into the territory under the country’s air traffic control.
The Government office said that these planes were detected 75 kilometres (46 miles) from the South American country’s coastline.
This is a direct “provocation that threatens national sovereignty and will invoke a response from the country next time,” said the country’s defence minister, Vladimir Padrino Lopez, in a televised address.
Calling the action a “military harassment and threat”, Lopez said “these are imperialist fighter planes that have dared to come close to the Venezuelan coast.”
“The presence of these jets flying close to our Caribbean Sea is a vulgarity, a provocation, and a threat to the security and sovereignty of the nation,” he added.
Also Read: US in ‘armed conflict’ with drug cartels: Trump
Tensions between Venezuela and the US escalated after US President Donald Trump accused the Maduro government of smuggling drugs into the US while aiding the drug cartel.
Trump had last month dispatched 10 fifth-generation F-35 fighter jets to Puerto Rico, a US territory in the Caribbean, as part of the largest military deployment in the area in over three decades.
The US President also deployed eight warships and a nuclear submarine to the region as part of the stated operation to combat drug trafficking across the Caribbean to the US.
The US has attacked several vessels from Venezuela in the Caribbean in recent weeks, killing at least 14 people, highlighting alleged drug trafficking.
Maduro has alleged that Washington is seeking regime change, but has also offered to have talks with US envoy Richard Grenell.
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