Washington has deployed warships to international waters off Venezuela’s coast, backed by F-35 fighters sent to Puerto Rico in what it calls an anti-drug operation.

“It is an undeclared war, and you can already see how people, whether or not they are drug traffickers, have been executed in the Caribbean Sea. Executed without the right to a defence,” Defence Minister Vladimir Padrino Lopez said as he attended a military exercise in response to the US “military threat”.

His remarks came just hours before US President Donald Trump announced another military strike on a boat, claiming three more alleged “narcoterrorists” were killed, bringing the total number of deaths in recent weeks to 17.

He did not say when the attack took place and only specified that it occurred in the US Southern Command area of responsibility, which includes Central and South America, as well as the Caribbean.

Trump has detailed two such strikes before and earlier this week, he said that the US had “knocked off” a third drug boat from Venezuela but did not provide additional information on that strike.

The strikes have prompted debate over the legality of the killings, with drug trafficking itself not a capital offence under US law.

Washington has also not provided specific details to back up its claims that the boats targeted have actually been trafficking drugs.

MNA/