Overview

• Washington is sending ten F-35 stealth fighters to Puerto Rico and keeping a flotilla and an attack submarine in the region for an expanded counter-narcotics mission.
• The White House says a U.S. strike this week on a vessel in international waters killed 11 people it identified as Tren de Aragua "narcoterrorists."
• Caracas denounced the action as an extrajudicial killing and announced a 4.5 million–member militia mobilization, before Nicolás Maduro later urged dialogue and said no dispute warrants war.
• The Pentagon cautioned Venezuela against escalation after two armed F-16s flew near the USS Jason Dunham and said operations against drug trafficking and terrorism will continue.
• Officials and analysts describe a doctrinal shift toward using military force against cartels beyond U.S. borders, with legal questions mounting over the strike’s justification.