CARACAS – Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on Friday called for dialogue with Washington, just hours after U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to shoot down Venezuelan military jets if they were to endanger American forces operating in the Caribbean.
Tensions between the two nations have escalated sharply in recent days after the Pentagon accused Venezuelan jets of flying provocatively close to a U.S. vessel, which followed a deadly American strike on a suspected Venezuelan drug boat.
"There is no disagreement between us that exists now or has ever existed that could lead to military conflict," Maduro said in a message broadcast across all Venezuelan radio and television channels.
"Venezuela is always ready for dialogue, to engage in dialogue, but we demand respect," he added, directly addressing the standoff.
Amid the rising tensions, Washington is deploying 10 advanced F-35 fighter jets to Puerto Rico as part of an enhanced counter-narcotics operation. These aircraft will join eight U.S. warships already in the South Caribbean as the Trump administration increases pressure on Maduro, whom the United States has accused of leading a drug cartel.
In his evening address, Maduro forcefully denied these allegations.
"The intelligence reports they are giving him (Trump) are false," Maduro stated. "Venezuela today is a country free of coca leaf and cocaine production, and it is a country that is fighting against drug trafficking."
'A Dangerous Position'
The call for talks followed a direct threat from the U.S. president earlier on Friday. When asked what steps he would take if there were more incidents of Venezuelan jets buzzing U.S. ships, Trump told reporters: "If they actually put us in a dangerous position, they will be shot down."
The immediate crisis was triggered by two key events. On Thursday, the Pentagon—which Trump on Friday referred to as the "War Department"—stated that two "Maduro regime" aircraft had flown close to a U.S. ship. "This highly provocative move was designed to impede our counter-narcoterrorism operations," the department said on X, without providing further details.
This incident followed a lethal U.S. operation on Tuesday, in which American forces blew up a drug boat allegedly belonging to Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan criminal organization Washington claims has links to Maduro. The strike killed 11 people and marked a significant escalation in what had previously been a law enforcement issue.
Maduro, a far-left leader whose 2024 re-election Washington deems illegitimate, has condemned the U.S. military buildup as "the greatest threat our continent has seen in 100 years." Declaring the country ready for an "armed struggle to defend the national territory," he has mobilized Venezuela's military, numbering around 340,000 troops, and its reserves, which he claims to be over eight million strong.
Washington officials have maintained an aggressive stance. White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller described Maduro as an "indicted narco-trafficker" and said Venezuela was being run by a "narco-trafficking organization."
On a tour of Latin America this week, Secretary of State Marco Rubio defended the new approach to what Washington calls "narco-terrorist" groups. "What is going to stop them is when they get blown up, when they get eliminated," Rubio said on Wednesday in Mexico.
