A powerful US Naval strike centered around the world warship, the USS Gerald R Ford, has arrived in the Caribbean, the US Navy has confirmed.
The arrival of the strike group, which was ordered in the region by Donald Trump last month, comes on the heels of ongoing strikes against alleged drug boats and tensions in Venezuela.
The US carried out at least 19 strikes against ships in the Caribbean and the eastern Pacific, killing 76 people.
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and other Venezuelan officials have accused the US of “creating” the crisis and seeking to topple the leftist government abroad.
The movement of the owner of the plane also comes between the administration of Trump and the Government of Colombia Gustavo Petro, whom Trump described as “a bad man”.
Petro on Tuesday ordered the country’s security forces to suspend intelligence sharing with US agencies until the attack on the boat in the Caribbean Stop.
He wrote in x that the fight against drugs “must be subordinated to the human rights of the Caribbean people”.
In a statement, the US Navy said the strike group entered the area of responsibility of the US Southern Command – which oversees Latin America and the Caribbean – on 11 November.
The force includes the USS Gerald Rard of Aircraft Carrier, which itself includes more than 4,000 sailors and dozens of aircraft. The Strike Force also includes guided mess workers and various containers.
Pentagon Spokesman Sean Parnell said that the force will “strengthen the capacity to find, hinder the accused actors and development” in the US and help “block” criminal groups in the region.
The Carrier group joins several military forces deployed in the region, including thousands of troops, a submarine operated by the military based in Puerto Rico.
Delfy, they form the largest US presence in and around Latin America in decades.
The US continues to launch strikes against alleged drug boats in the region. The Trump administration says the raids are necessary to stop the flow of drugs into the US.
Last week, the US announced that it had two additional strikes in the Pacific, killing six people.
In addition to suffering tensions with the governments of Colombia and Venezuela, the attacks brought concerns from some observers about human rights violations and due process.
Colombia’s Petro has also faced criticism as well as US sanctions over its lackluster response to drug cartels.
On Tuesday, Colombian military officials revealed they had launched their own deadly airstrikes against a drug-running group, killing 19, AFP reported.
Earlier in November, the corrupt proposals that he planned to fill the Venezuelan government or start a war.
In an interview with CBS – the US News Partner – Trump said that “every boat you see is shot down 25,000 of drugs across the country.”
Pressed on whether the US was planning any ground strikes, Trump refused to rule it out, saying: “I’m not going to tell you what I’m going to do in Venezuela, if I’m going to do it or if I’m not going to do it.”