Caracas responds to U.S. with three-day military drills in the Caribbean

Venezuela says it has launched three days of large-scale military exercises in the Caribbean after several U.S. attacks on alleged drug trafficking boats.

Defence minister Vladimir Padrino Lopez said the exercise, named Sovereign Caribbean, would involve air defence deployments with armed drones and “electronic warfare actions” in response to the “threatening, vulgar voice” of the U.S.

Venezuela’s defence ministry said the exercises would involve 12 ships, 22 aircraft, and 20 small boats from the “special naval militia.” They will take place on La Orchila island, where the South American country has a military base.

President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that a second “kinetic” strike had been carried out on a small boat that he claimed was carrying drugs to the U.S. from Venezuela.

“The strike occurred while these confirmed narcoterrorists from Venezuela were in international waters transporting illegal narcotics... headed to the U.S.,” he wrote.

Trump added that such “extremely violent drug trafficking cartels” are “a threat to U.S. national security, foreign policy and vital U.S. interests” and said that “three male terrorists” were killed in the strike. He provided no evidence that the boat was carrying drugs.

The strike followed a similar attack earlier this month on a vessel carrying 11 people who the White House claimed were members of Tren de Aragua, the Venezuelan gang which the Trump administration has designated as a terrorist organization.

Earlier this week, he did not rule out the prospect of the U.S. striking the Venezuelan mainland directly, saying: “We’ll see what happens.”

The U.S. has labeled Venezuela’s president Nicolas Maduro a “narcoterrorist” and put up a $50m (£37m) bounty for his arrest.

A number of U.S. naval forces, apparently tasked with combating drug traffickers, gathered in and around the southern Caribbean last week amid escalating tensions between Washington and Caracas.

Maduro has warned that he will respond in kind to any attack by warships patrolling near the Venezuelan coast, adding that he would declare a “republic in arms,” without elaborating.

He has accused Trump of pursuing a regime change, warning that U.S. military action against his country would “stain [Trump’s hands] with blood.”

Speaking at a press conference on Monday, Maduro claimed that Washington was “trying to justify” the launch of a "criminal attack" on his country.

“This isn’t tension. It is an aggression all down the line, it’s a judicial aggression when they criminalize us, a political aggression with their daily threatening statements, a diplomatic aggression, and an ongoing aggression of military character,” Maduro said.

The Venezuelan government said over the weekend that a U.S. destroyer illegally intercepted, boarded, and occupied a Venezuelan tuna fishing vessel for eight hours in the waters of the South American country’s special economic zone.

Trump has pushed for the military to tackle drug cartels that he blames for the flow of fentanyl and other illicit drugs into the U.S.

The U.S. president has long blamed Venezuela for a drug epidemic in his country, claiming Caracas is pouring narcotics into the U.S. through illegal channels. Venezuela has denied the allegations.