Pete Hegseth Warns Maduro After Attack Against Vessel Off Venezuela: 'Should Be Worried'

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Venezuela's authoritarian President Nicolas Maduro "should be worried" after an attack against a vessel off the South American country's coast.

"The only one who should be worried is Nicolas Maduro, who is acting as the kingpin of a narco state. Not actually elected and indicted for $50 million by the U.S. We know he's involved in the kind of drug-running that has affected the American people directly," Hegseth said during an interview on Fox News.

Hegseth added that officials "knew exactly who were on that boat and what they were doing." "It's a new dawn. Those 11 drug-traffickers are no longer with us, sending a very clear sign that the U.S. won't tolerate this kind of activity in our hemisphere," he added.

In another passage of the interview, Hegseth said the attack was not a one-off. "We've got assets in the air, assets in the water, assets on ships, because this is a deadly serious mission for us, and it won't it won't stop with just this strike," he said.

A Venezuelan official, however, claimed the video shared by the White House on Tuesday that showed the vessel being destroyed was made with artificial intelligence.

Communication Minister Freddy Ñañez said in a Telegram channel that "it seems" Secretary of State Marco Rubio "keeps lying to his president."

"After getting him between a rock and a hard place, now he gives him an AI video as 'proof,'" Ñañez added. "Marco Rubio, stop trying to encourage a war and trying to stain President Donald Trump's hands. Venezuela doesn't pose a threat."

The strike is the most serious confrontation yet in the standoff between the Trump administration and Venezuela since the Republican returned to the White House. Earlier this month, Trump secretly signed a directive authorizing military force against cartels declared terrorist organizations, according to The New York Times.

Maduro has ordered Venezuelan troops to mobilize and called on militias and volunteers to prepare for a possible foreign intervention. "If Venezuela is attacked, we will not hesitate to defend our sovereignty," he said.