US fighter jets fly over Gulf of Venezuela in new escalation
The United States has flown two Navy F/A-18 fighter jets over the Gulf of Venezuela, marking one of the closest approaches to Venezuelan airspace by American warplanes since Washington intensified its pressure campaign against the Latin American country.
According to data from public flight-tracking platforms, such as Flightradar24, the jets traversed the narrow gulf, which is approximately 150 miles wide at its widest point, and spent over half an hour flying over open water on Tuesday.
Flightradar24 also reported that the F/A-18s were the most-tracked aircraft on its platform during the mission.
A US defense official confirmed the mission as a “routine training flight,” claiming that the aircraft remained entirely within international airspace.
The official did not specify whether the aircraft were armed, only saying the flight was consistent with previous missions aimed at demonstrating US reach.
“This was not intended to be provocative,” the official said.
In recent years, the US has conducted similar exercises in the region, deploying B-52 Stratofortress and B-1 Lancer bombers for training purposes.
However, available flight data suggests that Tuesday’s F/A-18s flew closer to Venezuelan territory than any previous US aircraft in recent memory.
Venezuela claims the entire gulf as national territory, a position Washington has long disputed, arguing that Caracas’s claimed boundaries extend into international waters and airspace.
The overflight comes as Washington expands its largest military footprint in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific in decades.
The US has carried out a series of deadly strikes on alleged drug-smuggling boats, with at least 22 confirmed strikes since early September, resulting in the deaths of at least 87 people.
Officials in Caracas have condemned the attacks as a deliberate display of US hostility designed to intimidate the region and undermine Venezuela’s sovereignty amid heightened geopolitical tensions.
US President Donald Trump has defended the provocative campaign as a necessary escalation to curb drug trafficking into the United States, claiming that the country is engaged in an “armed conflict” with drug cartels.
Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, however, maintains that the true objective of the military buildup is to remove him from power and seize the nation’s oil resources.
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