Hegseth warns Maduro, says US ready to ‘intercept and destroy narco-terrorists’

Secretary of War (formerly Secretary of Defense) Pete Hegseth warned Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro and assured that the United States will maintain its military presence in the Caribbean to "intercept and destroy the narcoterrorists who are sending drugs to our country."

"I wouldn't want to be Nicolás Maduro right now. Maduro has a lot of decisions to make. We are sitting on a floating island of American power and we are prepared to use that power to intercept and destroy the narcoterrorists who are sending drugs into our country," Hegseth said in remarks made to Fox News and reported by AFP.

"The ball is in their court," the war secretary added.

In recent weeks, the Pentagon deployed eight ships in the Caribbean Sea to neutralize drug trafficking from countries like Venezuela landing in the country.

A few days ago, a boat that had sailed from the Venezuelan coast was destroyed by a US missile, killing 11 "narco-terrorists," President Donald Trump claimed.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned that more actions like this could be carried out, thus defending the Trump administration's decision to prevent drugs from Venezuela from reaching U.S. territory. "What will stop them is destroying them," the diplomacy chief said.

Maduro's regime responded with the dispatch of two F-16 planes that flew over a U.S. destroyer sailing in the waters of the Caribbean Sea.

Faced with these facts, Hegseth responded by saying that "this highly provocative move was designed to interfere with our counter narco-terrorism operations," adding a warning against "the cartel running Venezuela … not to pursue any further effort to obstruct, deter or interfere" operations against drug trafficking and terrorism.