Three U.S. long-range strategic bombers, the B52H Stratofortresses, flew from their Louisiana airbase towards Venezuela on Wednesday morning, Oct. 15, two of them then circling off its coast for around two hours. While they did not enter Venezuelan airspace, they operated within the Flight Information Region (FIR) monitored by the air traffic controllers at the Maiquetía airport which serves Caracas, Venezuela’s capital. No official U.S. agency commented on the deployment. Whether it was a rehearsal for things to come, or “merely” strategic messaging, the threat to Venezuela was clear.
The B52 deployment followed less than 24 hours after the U.S. fired missiles and sank yet another boat in the Caribbean, claiming that the six-man crew aboard sent to their deaths were drug-traffickers. As with the previous four boats so sunk, no evidence whatsoever was provided of the charge.
In the afternoon, U.S. President Donald Trump boasted that military strikes against Venezuela are being studied. “I don’t want to tell you exactly, but we are certainly looking at land now, because we’ve got the sea very well under control. We’ve had a couple of days where there isn’t a boat to be found,” he told reporters when asked.
The question came up in an exchange with the President over a report published Oct. 15 by the New York Times that a highly-classified “presidential finding” has been issued to the CIA, authorizing the agency “to carry out lethal operations inside Venezuela and conduct a range of operations in the Caribbean. The agency would be able to take covert action against Mr. Maduro or his government either unilaterally or in conjunction with a larger military operation,” the Times reported. It went on that “multiple U.S. officials,” speaking on condition of anonymity, who described the contents of the finding to their reporters, and credited U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio with having designed the administration’s strategy to remove Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro from power with help from CIA Director John Ratcliffe.
