WASHINGTON - The United States’ most advanced aircraft carrier arrived in the Caribbean Sea on Sunday in a display of US military power, raising questions about what the new influx of troops and weaponry could signal for the Trump administration’s drug enforcement campaign in South America.
The arrival of the USS Gerald R. Ford, announced by the US military in a news release, marks a major moment in what the Trump administration insists is a counter-drug operation, but has been seen as an escalating pressure tactic against Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. Since early September, US strikes have killed at least 80 people in 20 attacks on small boats accused of transporting drugs in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific Ocean. The Ford rounds off the largest build-up of US firepower in the region in generations, bringing the total number of troops to about 12,000 on nearly a dozen Navy ships in what Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth has dubbed “Operation Southern Spear”. The Ford’s carrier strike group, which includes squadrons of fighter jets and guided-missile destroyers, transited the Anegada Passage near the British Virgin Islands on Sunday morning, the Navy said in a statement. Rear Admiral Paul Lanzilotta, who commands the Ford’s carrier strike group, said it will bolster an already large force of American warships to “protect our nation’s security and prosperity against narco-terrorism in the Western Hemisphere”. (Jamaica Gleaner)
