{"id":469805,"date":"2025-10-03T01:00:13","date_gmt":"2025-10-03T01:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/469805\/"},"modified":"2025-10-03T01:00:13","modified_gmt":"2025-10-03T01:00:13","slug":"venezuela-says-it-detected-5-us-combat-planes-flying-75km-from-its-coast-calls-it-a-provocation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/469805\/","title":{"rendered":"Venezuela says it detected 5 US \u2018combat planes\u2019 flying 75km from its coast, calls it a \u2018provocation\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n Venezuela<\/a> on Thursday said it had detected five US fighter jets flying near its Caribbean coast. Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino described the incident as a \u201cprovocation\u201d by the United States that posed a threat to national security.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThey are combat aircraft. Combat aircraft that US imperialism has dared to approach the Venezuelan coast,\u201d Padrino said in comments broadcast on state TV.\n <\/p>\n

\n Later on Thursday, the Venezuelan government issued a statement saying the aircraft had been detected 75 kilometers (about 46 miles) from its coastline, miles away from standard territorial waters which are typically 12 nautical miles from the coast.\n <\/p>\n

\n Padrino described the planes as US F-35 fighter jets flying at a speed of 400 knots and an altitude of 35,000 feet. He said they were detected by air defense systems in the Maiquet\u00eda flight information region, a large expanse of sky that extends northward over the Caribbean Sea encompassing the entire airspace of Venezuela and beyond into international airspace.\n <\/p>\n

\n Padrino said the crew of an international airliner flying in the area also reported to Maiquet\u00eda air traffic controllers that it had seen the US aircraft.\n <\/p>\n

\n CNN has reached out to the US Department of Defense for comment and to the Venezuelan Defense Ministry for the exact positions of the flights.\n <\/p>\n

\n The news comes amid heightened tensions<\/a> between Washington and Caracas following the deployment of several US warships<\/a> in the Caribbean, which the US insists is a mission to combat drug trafficking, but Venezuela believes is aimed at regime change.\n <\/p>\n

\n Recent US strikes have targeted at least four boats, killing more than a dozen suspected drug traffickers, though the US has not provided concrete evidence that those targeted were criminals.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cWe had never seen this deployment of aircraft, which we know are stationed in Puerto Rico, of the F-35 class,\u201d Padrino said.\n <\/p>\n

\n At least five F-35 fighter jets arrived in Puerto Rico<\/a> in mid-September, according to the US Department of Defense. Two White House officials previously told CNN that the US would send 10 of those planes to the island, where a unit of US Marines has been conducting training exercises for amphibious landings.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cWe are watching you,\u201d Padrino warned, \u201cAnd I want you to know that this does not intimidate us.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n CNN\u2019s Jonny Hallam contributed.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Venezuela on Thursday said it had detected five US fighter jets flying near its Caribbean coast. Defense Minister…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":469806,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5311],"tags":[49,978,659],"class_list":{"0":"post-469805","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"tag-united-states","9":"tag-us","10":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115307533014041768","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469805","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=469805"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469805\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/469806"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=469805"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=469805"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=469805"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}