WASHINGTON – On Thursday, two supersonic bombers from the U.S. military made their way to the Venezuelan coastline, following a similar mission carried out just over a week ago. This exercise aimed to simulate an attack scenario as part of a broader training initiative.

The presence of a significant U.S. military force in the Caribbean and near Venezuelan shores has fueled speculation about potential actions against Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. President Trump has previously accused Maduro of narcoterrorism, charges that have intensified discussions about U.S. intentions in the region.

Further fueling these speculations, since early September, the U.S. military has been actively engaging in targeted operations against vessels in the area, which President Trump claims are involved in drug trafficking activities.

Flight tracking reports revealed that two B-1 Lancer bombers departed from Dyess Air Force Base in Texas and navigated through the Caribbean to reach the Venezuelan coast. An anonymous U.S. official confirmed the occurrence of this training operation involving B-1 bombers in the Caribbean.

The B-1 Lancer stands out in the U.S. arsenal for its capability to carry a larger payload of bombs than any other aircraft in its fleet.

A similar flight of slower B-52 Stratofortress bombers was conducted in the region last week. The bombers were joined by Marine Corps F-35B stealth fighter jets — a squadron is currently based in Puerto Rico — for what the Pentagon called a “bomber attack demo” in photos online.

When Trump was asked about Thursday’s B-1 flight and if it was meant to ramp up military pressure on Venezuela, he said, “it’s false, but we’re not happy with Venezuela for a lot of reasons. Drugs being one of them.”

The U.S. force in the Caribbean includes eight warships, P-8 maritime patrol aircraft, MQ-9 Reaper drones and an F-35 fighter squadron. A submarine has also been confirmed to be operating in the waters off South America.

Trump on Wednesday said he has the “legal authority” to carry out the strikes on the alleged drug-carrying boats and suggested similar strikes could be done on land.

“We will hit them very hard when they come in by land,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. “We’re totally prepared to do that. And we’ll probably go back to Congress and explain exactly what we’re doing when we come to the land.”

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Wednesday that the military had conducted its ninth strike, killing three people in the eastern Pacific Ocean. It followed a strike Tuesday night, also in the eastern Pacific, that killed two people and brought the overall death toll from the strikes to at least 37.

The latest pair of strikes expanded the Trump administration’s campaign against drug trafficking in South America from the waters of the Caribbean to the eastern Pacific.

Hegseth has drawn a direct comparison between the war on terrorism that the U.S. declared after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and the Trump administration’s crackdown.

“Our message to these foreign terrorist organizations is we will treat you like we have treated al-Qaeda,” Hegseth told reporters on Thursday at the White House.

“We will find you, we will map your networks, we will hunt you down, and we will kill you,” he added.