US B-52s and helicopters fly near Venezuela in show of threats

By ERIC SCHMITT

The Trump administration is sharply increasing U.S. military pressure on the government of Nicolás Maduro, Venezuela’s authoritarian president, with a dramatic show of aerial threats in recent days as the Pentagon mounts a major troop buildup in the region.

On Wednesday, at least two B-52 bombers from Louisiana flew for several hours off the Venezuelan coast in international air space in what one senior U.S. official on Thursday called “a show of force.” The B-52s can carry dozens of precision-guided bombs.

Also in recent days, an elite Army Special Operations aviation unit has been conducting flights in the southern Caribbean Sea near the coast of Venezuela.

The helicopters, belonging to the Army’s 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, have been flying training missions, not rehearsals for a possible military action inside Venezuela, said one U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss operational matters.

But the official acknowledged that the regiment’s presence, reported earlier by The Washington Post, was meant to provide options to President Donald Trump as he and his administration ratchet up pressure on suspected drug traffickers in the region and on Maduro, Venezuela’s authoritarian leader.

On Wednesday, The New York Times reported that the Trump administration had secretly authorized the CIA to conduct covert action in Venezuela.

The authorization is the latest step in the Trump administration’s intensifying pressure campaign against Venezuela. Since early September, U.S. Special Operations forces have struck at least five boats off the Venezuelan coast that the White House said were transporting drugs, killing 27 people. American officials have privately made it clear that the main goal is to drive Maduro from power.

Trump acknowledged Wednesday that he had authorized the covert action and said the United States was considering strikes on Venezuelan territory.

The development comes as the U.S. military is planning its own possible escalation, drawing up options for Trump to consider, including strikes inside Venezuela that could include troops from the 160th Regiment, a storied unit called the “The Night Stalkers” that conducted extensive counterterrorism operations in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria.

The size and scope of the U.S. military buildup in the Caribbean region is significant. There are now about 10,000 U.S. troops, most of them at bases in Puerto Rico, but also some 2,200 Marines on amphibious assault ships. In all, the Navy has eight warships and a submarine in the Caribbean.

Imagery that has circulated on social media in recent days and was verified by the Times shows at least six MH-6 Little Bird attack helicopters and three MH-60 Black Hawks flying over open water near an oil and gas platform off the coast of Trinidad and Tobago. Those aircraft are mainstays of the 160th Regiment.

In a brief interview at an Army conference in Washington this week, Col. Stephen Smith, the commander of the 160th Regiment, declined to comment on the unit’s operations.

Some details about the B-52 flights Wednesday were reported earlier by The War Zone.

When asked Thursday about the flights, the Pentagon in a statement declined to comment on “operational matters.”