Venezuela Claims Five U.S. Jets Approached Its Coastline: 'Military Harassment'

Venezuelan Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino Lopez claimed that five U.S. jets approached the country's coastline on Thursday, an action he described as "military harassment."

"I am denouncing this military harassment in front of the world," the official said in a televised address. "This is a great threat."

Padrino didn't specify where the incident took place nor if the country's authoritarian government will respond to the sorties.

The claim took place a day after President Donald Trump declared cartels as unlawful combatants and said the U.S. is now in a "non-international armed conflict" with them.

The Associated Press detailed that the decision was notified to Congress members on Wednesday. Some lawmakers briefed on the decision, however, voiced their frustration at the Pentagon's inability to provide a list of the designated terrorist organizations in the conflict, the report added.

The outlet also noted that senators believe the decision shows the administration is seeking a new legal framework for its actions in the Caribbean, which includes several strikes against vessels it has claimed were carrying drugs and drug-traffickers. Democrats have been pressing the president to seek war powers authority for the operations, but that hasn't happened so far, raising objections from lawmakers, including Republicans.

Other reports, however, claim that the real reason for the deployment in ousting Venezuela's authoritarian President Nicolas Maduro, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio playing a leading role in the push.

The New York Times reported on Monday that Rubio has been arguing that Maduro is not the country's legitimate president and oversees drug-trafficking operations to the U.S., which he described as an "imminent threat." The initiative has the support of White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller and CIA Director John Ratcliffe.

The U.S. Army has drawn up plans for strikes inside Venezuela, but the White House has not approved them, the outlet added. Since they claim Maduro leads a criminal organization, removing him could be framed as a counternarcotics operation.