Illustrative image. (U.S. Navy)
The Pentagon on October 24 ordered the deployment of the USS Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group to the Caribbean Sea to support operations against drug cartels there, amid reports suggesting that President Donald Trump was nearing a decision on launching strikes against Venezuela.
“The enhanced U.S. force presence in the USSOUTHCOM AOR will bolster U.S. 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. These forces will enhance and augment existing capabilities to disrupt narcotics trafficking and degrade and dismantle TCOs,” spokesman Sean Parnell wrote on X.
Tensions have been on the rise between Venezuela and the U.S. since August, when the Trump administration doubled the reward for the arrest of Maduro to $50 million on drug trafficking charges then deployed a naval force with thousands of marines close to the country’s shores on a so-called “counter narco-terror operation”.
The deployment of the USS Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group marks a significant escalation by the U.S. The carrier can support some 70 aircraft, including F/A-18 Super Hornet fighter jets and EA-18G Growler electric warfare attack jets. The carrier’s group also includes several Tomahawk cruise-missile carrying destroyers.
The strike group docked near the harbor of Split, Croatia, on October 21. That is more than 4,300 nautical miles from the Caribbean, meaning it would take days for the group to be in position to launch any strikes.
The announcement of the carrier strike group deployment came just hours after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said that the U.S. military had struck another alleged drug-smuggling boat in the Caribbean.
Hegseth said on X that the strike killed all six men who were on board, and took place in international waters. He noted that this was the first strike to take place at night.
“The vessel was known by our intelligence to be involved in illicit narcotics smuggling, was transiting along a known narco-trafficking route, and carrying narcotics,” Hegseth wrote, linking the boat to the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua.
This latest strike was the tenth carried out by the Trump administration against alleged drug trafficking boats over the past several weeks, which have now led to at least 43 deaths. The first several took place in the Caribbean Sea, but this week, operations expanded into the Pacific Ocean.
CNN reported amid these developments that Trump is considering plans to target cocaine facilities and drug trafficking routes inside Venezuela.
Responding to the recent escalation by the U.S., Maduro warned on October 25 that the Trump administration is “inventing a new eternal war”
“The people of the United States know it, they are inventing a new eternal war,” Maduro said. “They promised they would never get involved in another war, and now they are inventing a war that we are going to prevent. How? By mobilizing the peoples of South America.”
Maduro added that Venezuela is free from coca leaf production and accused the U.S. of targeting his country with exaggerated and unfounded allegations.
The deployment of a carrier strike group is a very costly affair. Thus, the U.S. appears to be nearing a decision on attacking Venezuela.
Even launching strikes against alleged drug-linked targets could lead to a dangerous confrontation. Venezuela has already deployed its air defenses. This would be the first step towards a regime change in Caracas. Some in the Trump administration have been reportedly pushing for this. The stance of Trump himself remains unclear.
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trump’s stance remains unclear? to who? sf? you need to quit the ‘drug interdiction’ bs…like maduro said, we all know what trumps doing and what he’s after. maduro tried talking to the moron war monger-in-chief. tramp only wants more war, not negotiation. maduro should have already learned this. at least he showed it was war tramp is after, not peace at all. wait til meilei pisses tramp off, sooner or later everyone does. and why does sf approve spam?
its strange that someone in south america are not given carrier killers to take out rabies infected killers of fishing expeditions. sink the carriers ! and free shooting contest on adolf trump ! the police in several european countrys have kill disabled persons for many years, its time to kill the murderers voted for, the real parasites and evil doers.
whatever problem “us” have, it have only one solution to it, to kill other nations citizens. its time the world wake up to its real problem; the existence of “us”. its a existential problem.