Image source, Getty Images
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- author, Ion Wells
- Author title, Correspondent in South America
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The world’s largest warship, the USS Gerald R. Ford, arrived in Latin America on Tuesday, in what some analysts see as another step in the United States’ latest military escalation in the region.
The US Navy said in a statement on Tuesday that the ship entered the Southern Command area, which covers Latin America and the Caribbean, three weeks after the order was issued to deploy it in the region.
The United States deployed its largest military buildup in decades to the Caribbean and carried out a series of attacks against ships allegedly involved in drug trafficking in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific.
There were at least 19 attacks that killed at least 75 people in international waters.
Washington did not provide evidence of the alleged illegal use of those ships or details about the people on board, and many observers believe that the use of military force is also an attempt to pressure Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, whom the US government accuses of being the head of a drug trafficking organization, to try to overthrow him.
Maduro denies these accusations and says that the United States is “making a war” against Venezuela.
Venezuela and Colombia have warned that the military deployment could lead to a large-scale conflict, and speculation has increased about whether the United States will carry out direct attacks on Venezuelan territory.
On Tuesday, the Venezuelan government announced a nationwide military deployment to confront the US naval presence off its coast.
Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino reported that the order had been issued to “put into full operational readiness” all of the country’s military resources, and to massively deploy “land, air, sea, river and missile means, weapons systems, military units, the Bolivarian militia, citizen security services and comprehensive defense commands.”
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