U.S. Air Force B-1 bombers flew near Venezuela on Thursday in another show of force against dictator Nicolás Maduro amid a widening military campaign in the Caribbean targeting alleged drug traffickers.
Two B-1 Lancers took off from Dyess Air Force Base in Texas and flew near Venezuela, remaining in international airspace, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing a U.S. official and flight-tracking data.
Last week, the Air Force and Marines conducted a similar show of force with B-52 bombers and F-35B fighter jets near an island off the Venezuelan coast where its military held training exercises in September.
The bombers circled the area before returning to the U.S., the Journal reported, citing flight-tracking data.
The Pentagon described the flights as an “attack demonstration.”
President Donald Trump told reporters Thursday during a Homeland Security Task Force roundtable at the White House that the report of B-1s flying near Venezuela was “false.”
“No, it’s false,” Trump said. “But we’re not happy with Venezuela for a lot of reasons, drugs being one of them. But also, they’ve been sending their prisoners into our country for years under the Biden administration. Not anymore.
“We have a closed border.”
It is the second time in two days that Trump has disputed a Journal story.
On Wednesday, he took to Truth Social after the Journal reported that his administration lifted a major restriction on Ukraine’s use of Western-supplied long-range missiles, calling it “FAKE NEWS!”
The bomber flights are part of a broader military ramp-up that includes eight warships, a submarine, a P-8 maritime patrol aircraft, MQ-9 Reaper drones, and an F-35 fighter squadron now deployed in the region, according to the Journal.
The U.S. has rarely flown bombers near South America in recent decades, typically conducting only one planned training mission a year. But more bomber missions could follow soon, two defense officials told the Journal.
The widening campaign has focused on countering alleged drug traffickers from Venezuela and Colombia.
After at least seven strikes on boats and a submersible in the Caribbean since early September, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said Wednesday that the U.S. attacked two vessels in the eastern Pacific this week.
Bombers could be used to hit narcotics distribution or production facilities, current and former Air Force officials told the Journal.
The Trump administration has faced growing bipartisan scrutiny over the legal basis for the strikes, though the Republican-controlled Congress has rejected measures to limit the president’s power to continue them.
Asked whether Trump would need congressional authorization to conduct strikes on land, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., told the Journal on Thursday, “I’m not sure I know the answer to that.”
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