News Americas, NEW YORK, NY, Tues. Sept. 16, 2025: Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro is accusing Washington of provoking a potential armed conflict in the Caribbean following a second U.S. military strike on what the Trump administration claims was a drug-laden boat from Venezuela.
Speaking at a press conference in Caracas, Maduro lashed out at the United States, saying the latest strike — which killed three people aboard the vessel — is part of a broader campaign to “intimidate and seek regime change.”
A US Air Force Boeing C-17 Globemaster takeoff at José Aponte de la Torre Airport, formerly Roosevelt Roads Naval Station, on September 11, 2025, in Ceiba, Puerto Rico. The Trump administration recently carried out a drone strike in the southern Caribbean against a boat that had left Venezuela and was suspected of transporting drugs. Eleven people died in the attack. The president claimed that the vessel was operated by the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua. (Photo by Miguel J. Rodríguez Carrillo/Getty Images)
“They are looking for a military incident,” Maduro charged. “When 18 armed Marines raid a tuna fishing vessel in Caribbean waters, they are not looking for snapper — they are looking for war.”
The comments come as Lockheed Martin F-35B fighter jets were spotted flying over the Roosevelt Roads Naval Station in Puerto Rico, a move seen by military analysts as a show of force just miles from Venezuelan waters.
Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro makes a speech at the end of a press conference with international media at Hotel Eurobuilding in Caracas, Venezuela on September 15, 2025. (Photo by Ivan Mcgregor/Anadolu via Getty Images)
The U.S. military footprint in Puerto Rico is expanding as F-35B stealth fighters touched down last Saturday at the former Naval Station Roosevelt Roads — now José Aponte de la Torre Airport — transforming the once-surplus base into a major staging ground for Washington’s counternarcotics operations and pressure campaign against Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro.
The arrival of the fifth-generation fighters comes amid heightened tensions in the southern Caribbean following two recent U.S. strikes on alleged Venezuelan drug boats.
Even before the F-35s landed, the base had seen a flurry of activity. Heavy-lift cargo planes including the C-5 Galaxy and C-17 Globemaster III have been spotted delivering equipment, alongside Marine Corps MV-22 Osprey tiltrotors and CH-53K King Stallion helicopters. The aircraft are part of the Iwo Jima Amphibious Readiness Group and the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit, which began a training exercise on the island on August 31st.
The surge in operations has reignited debate over whether Roosevelt Roads — decommissioned more than two decades ago — should be permanently reopened as a U.S. military installation, especially as the Trump administration leans on Puerto Rico’s strategic location to project power into the Caribbean.
Trump’s Expanding “War on Cartels”
President Donald Trump confirmed a second strike on a Venezuelan boat on Monday, calling it a necessary step to protect U.S. communities from narcotics.
“These extremely violent drug trafficking cartels pose a threat to U.S. national security, foreign policy, and vital U.S. interests,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “Big bags of cocaine and fentanyl were found all over the ocean.”
Trump hinted the campaign could expand beyond maritime operations, saying cartels smuggling drugs by land could also face military strikes: “We’re going to stop them the same way we stopped the boats.”
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth echoed the president, warning cartels the U.S. would “track them, kill them, and dismantle their networks throughout our hemisphere.”
A Growing Risk for the Wider Caribbean
Regional security experts warn that the militarization of anti-narcotics operations in the Caribbean could destabilize a region already struggling with gang violence and illegal trafficking routes.
The Caribbean has increasingly become a transshipment point for cocaine and fentanyl entering the U.S., but human rights advocates question whether drone and missile strikes are a proportional response.
“This is not just a war on cartels — this is extrajudicial killing at sea,” said Amnesty International’s Daphne Eviatar, who called the strikes “murder” under international law.
Regional Governments on Edge
So far, CARICOM leaders have stayed largely quiet on the escalation, but Trinidad and Tobago’s Prime Minister, Kamla Persad-Bissessar, has rejected an accusation by Maduro that she “went crazy… threatening to authorize attacks from Trinidad and Tobago against Venezuela. That is like declaring war against Venezuela.”
Responding to the comments, she clarified her position. “I am not concerned about their comments. The U.S. has never requested access to our territory for any military action against Venezuela,” she told the Express. “I have no issue with a respectful relationship with the Venezuelan government — but it must be mutual.”
She pressed Caracas to accept the repatriation of roughly 200 Venezuelan nationals, saying their government had stalled the process for over two months.
“The relationship between our two countries would improve if they helped curb illegal drug, arms, and human trafficking across the Gulf of Paria, which fuels gang violence here,” she added.
Meanwhile, during the inauguration of Guyanese President Irfaan Ali in Georgetown on Sunday, two U.S. AV-8B aircraft conducted a flyover, which “symbolizes our full solidarity with the people of Guyana,” the U.S. Embassy in the South American country said. This as Guyana, which established a partnership with the U.S. in 1966, has a centuries-long border dispute with its western neighbor Venezuela over the oil-rich Essequibo region, a Guyana-administered territory that makes up two-thirds of the country’s land area.
For now, the Caribbean Community watches anxiously as Washington and Caracas edge toward confrontation — a standoff that threatens to turn the region from a tranquil tourism haven into the next front line in America’s war on drugs.
