The US Navy’s most advanced aircraft carrier has entered the Caribbean as the White House continues to mount pressure on Venezuela amid ongoing tensions, officials said.
In a statement, the Navy said its carrier USS Gerald R. Ford and its strike group with fighter jets, two guided-missile destroyers, and other support vessels and aircraft had joined several other US warships already in the Caribbean as part of Operation Southern Spear.
The latest operation was approved last Thursday by the US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth after Trump gave the go-ahead to the operation.
Nearly a dozen US warships and more than 12,000 sailors and Marines are currently deployed to the Caribbean as part of the latest anti-cartel operation.
Head of US Southern Command (SOUTHCOM), Admiral Alvin Holsey, who oversees the Caribbean and Latin America, said in a statement that American forces "stand ready to combat the transnational threats that seek to destabilise our region."
Since September, the US Navy has carried out at least 20 strikes on small boats in the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean, killing at least 80 individuals whom Washington claims were drug traffickers. The US, however, has yet to provide evidence of criminal activity by any of those killed. Critics, including in Caracas and in Bogota, have condemned the strikes as illegal extrajudicial killings, regardless of any crime.
US president Donald Trump has suggested that US troops might carry out land operations inside Venezuela to restrict narcotics from coming into the country.
While analysts believe the USS Ford Carrier Strike Group may be ill-suited for anti-cartel operations, it intensifies pressure on Maduro to step down.
Last Friday, after meeting with military advisors, Trump told reporters on Air Force One that he had "sort of" made up his mind on what to do.
Maduro says the US is "fabricating" a war against him and that "the Venezuelan people are ready to defend their homeland against any criminal aggression."
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