Information
The US has ordered the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford and accompanying vessels to deploy to the Caribbean as part of a stepped-up military presence, Washington says, is intended to combat drug trafficking. The move follows a wider US campaign launched in early September that officials say targeted narcotics shipments, in which at least ten vessels were destroyed, and comes after a US strike that Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said killed six people aboard a boat allegedly run by the Venezuelan gang Tren de Agua.
Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and other Venezuelan leaders denounce the buildup as an effort to “fabricate a war,” accusing the US of aggression. The Pentagon frames the deployment as strengthening detection, monitoring and disruption of transnational criminal organisations (TCOs) in the USSOUTHCOM area of responsibility; Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said the enhanced force will bolster US capacity to protect homeland and regional security. Hegseth has publicly vowed to treat “narco-terrorists” like Al-Qaeda, saying US forces will map, track, hunt and kill those smuggling drugs in the hemisphere.
Source: AFP, Reuters and AP
So What
While direct US ground operations in Venezuela still appear unlikely, the Trump administration is clearly escalating pressure on President Maduro, signalling a desire for regime change. There is also a possibility that the US could conduct airstrikes against targets such as suspected drug facilities, but such action would represent a significant escalation with high political and regional risk. Despite Washington’s stepped-up posture, forcing a political transition remains unlikely given Maduro’s tight grip on internal security and continued support from key international allies.
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