Two US Air Force B-1B “Lancer” Long-Range Heavy Bombers have once again buzzed Venezuela’s coast on Monday, reportedly coming to within less than 50 miles from the capital of Caracas.
Open source analysts tracking the flights also noted that several points the bombers likely came within only a few miles of the country’s national airspace.
Monday’s flights mark the second time in a week that US bombers flew from a base in the mainland US to the Caribbean. This time the pair of warplanes circled south of the Dominican Republic, and made a run very near to Venezuela’s coast.
It marks the third time such a bomber flight took place overall, since recent weeks have witnessed US tensions with the Maduro government soar, and at a moment regime change looks to be on the table, based on threatening words from Trump admin officials.
Late in the afternoon Monday, AFP confirmed the flights with the following details:
The flight of the long-range supersonic bombers comes as Washington carries out a military campaign against alleged drug traffickers in the region, deploying forces that have sparked fears in Caracas that regime change is the ultimate goal.
Data from tracking website Flightradar24 showed the two bombers — which took off from a base in the northern US state of North Dakota — flying parallel to the Venezuelan coast before disappearing from view.
The flight path around Dominican Republic:
Previous to this fresh run, last Thursday was the last publicly known time that US bombers flew near Venezuela.
There’s been a lot of speculation of late over just what President Trump intends to do with the unprecedented US military build-up in the Caribbean. There’s concern that he is preparing to launch imminent military action against the Maduro government, per a recent report in the WSJ:
The U.S. has seldom flown bombers near South America in recent decades, usually carrying out just one planned training mission a year. But more missions involving bombers could be carried out soon, according to two defense officials.
Thursday’s flights signal “seriousness and intent,” said David Deptula, a retired Air Force general and Dean of the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies, an aerospace think tank. “You’re bringing an enormous set of capabilities…endurance, payload, range and precision,” he said.
There’s also starting to be a mainstream media drumbeat for war, as tends to happen when a nation gets labeled “rogue regime” and the hawks start circling…
60 Minutes says there are only three possible outcomes in Venezuela: Maduro flees, gets captured by the US, or is assassinated. So they’re presupposing the inevitability of US-imposed regime change. Always fascinating when CBS News winds up in total alignment with the Trump Admin pic.twitter.com/ZE5zOtC4ll
— Michael Tracey (@mtracey) October 27, 2025
The US Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) had earlier this month described its first bomber flights near Venezuela as a “bomber attack demonstration mission” in skies over the southern Caribbean. It could be a ‘dry run’ for imminent war, or else major attacks on cartels.
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