President Donald Trump dramatically escalated a US military buildup in the Caribbean yesterday by deploying the Gerald Ford aircraft carrier group to Latin America, a show of force that far exceeds any past counter-narcotics need and represents Washington’s most muscular move yet in the region.
The deployment is part of Trump’s military buildup in the Caribbean, which includes eight additional warships, a nuclear submarine and F-35 aircraft. It is likely to raise concern in the region about the Trump administration’s intent.
The deployment marks a significant escalation amid heightened tensions with Venezuela, whose government Washington has long accused of harbouring drug traffickers and undermining democratic institutions.
“The enhanced US force presence in the USSOUTHCOM AOR will bolster US capacity to detect, monitor, and disrupt illicit actors and activities that compromise the safety and prosperity of the United States homeland and our security in the Western Hemisphere,” Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell posted on X.
He did not specify when the carrier would be moving to the region, but as of a few days ago, the carrier was travelling via the Strait of Gibraltar and in Europe.
The Ford, which was commissioned in 2017, is the US’ newest aircraft carrier and the world’s largest, with more than 5,000 sailors aboard.
The US military has carried out 10 strikes against alleged drug vessels, mostly in the Caribbean, since early September, killing about 40 people. While the Pentagon has not given much information, it has said some of those killed were Venezuelan.
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has repeatedly alleged that the US is hoping to drive him from power.
On Thursday, Maduro warned that if the US ever intervened in the country, “the working class would rise and a general insurrectional strike would be declared in the streets until power is regained,” adding that “millions of men and women with rifles would march across the country.”
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