America’s largest aircraft carrier arrives in Caribbean waters and increases tension with Venezuela | International

The largest and most advanced aircraft carrier in the United States, the USS Gerald R. Ford, arrived in the waters of the Caribbean Sea on Sunday with an unprecedented military deployment of the US Army in the region with the aim of “dismantling transnational criminal organizations and combating narco-terrorism”, as reported in a statement from the US Southern Command (Southcom).

The arrival of the aircraft carrier, with more than 4,000 sailors and dozens of tactical aircraft on board, increases tension with Venezuela and opens the door to an imminent military operation in the region. In early September, the Trump administration launched a military operation against drug trafficking off the coast of the Caribbean country. During this period, the US military bombed 21 suspected drug boats and killed 83 people in Caribbean and eastern Pacific waters on the orders of President Trump, who accused them without evidence of belonging to drug cartels.

The arrival of USS Gerald R. Ford in Caribbean waters comes one day after the twenty-first attack by the US army on a drug trafficker’s boat, as announced by SouthCom on Sunday.

“On November 15, by order of Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, the Joint Task Force Diamond tip carried out a lethal kinetic attack against a ship operated by a designated terrorist organization,” announces the US Southern Command through a publication on the X social network.

The operation, without a court warrant, ended the lives of three people who were on board the alleged drug vessel. The vessel was sailing in the waters of the eastern Pacific when it was attacked by a projectile launched by the US military.

The Southern Command explains, without providing evidence, that the secret services confirmed that the ship was engaged in illicit drug smuggling, was transiting a known drug trafficking route and was transporting narcotics.

The attacks on drug traffickers and the largest military deployment in decades in the area are interpreted as a U.S. ploy to force the resignation of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. The US administration accuses Maduro’s regime of supporting drug trafficking and does not consider him a legitimate president following Venezuela’s controversial presidential elections last year.

Tension is at its highest after Trump assured on board the Air Force One who already knows “more or less” what the objectives are in Venezuela. After a week of consultations to define the details of the operation, the Trump administration seems ready to make a decision on the military campaign in the Caribbean country.

“The Marine Forces operations in the U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) area of ​​responsibility comes after Secretary of War Pete Hegseth directed the carrier strike group to support the President’s directive to dismantle transnational criminal organizations and combat narco-terrorism in defense of the homeland,” the U.S. Army Southern Command said in a statement.

The arrival of USS Gerald R. Perd complete the mission Operation Southern Spear, which includes nearly a dozen Navy ships and approximately 12,000 military personnel. This aircraft carrier is the first of its kind, it can simultaneously catapult and recover fixed-wing aircraft onto its flight deck, day or night, in support of assigned operations.

Military maneuvers off the coast of Venezuela have sparked criticism from Democrats. Progressive Party Senator Jeanne Shaheen assured on Sunday that she was unaware of the Trump administration’s military objectives in the Caribbean: “I don’t think it’s clear what the ultimate objective of this administration is with respect to Venezuela,” Shaheen said in an interview with the CBS network.

“What (President Trump) did here was put other parts of the world, and Americans in other parts of the world, at risk because of this fascination with trying to get rid of Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela,” Shaheen noted. “What the president is doing raises real questions,” he added.

For weeks the White House has been increasing pressure on Venezuela, accusing the country of being a narco-state. He justifies the deployment to stop the flow of drugs into the United States, but has never released any evidence to support his claims that the people killed on the ships were “narcoterrorists.”

Trump warned that military operations would not be limited to maritime attacks. He said the United States will “block the entry of drugs overland.” For this reason, experts predict an imminent operation on land targets in Venezuela. But remember that with Trump anything can happen and a twist can happen at any moment.