Madrid, November 11 (European Press) –
The Donald Trump administration announced on Tuesday that it had deployed an aircraft carrier to Latin America, amid tensions with Venezuela due to the US military campaign on drug trafficking in the region, which resulted in the deaths of dozens in bombings in the waters of the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean.
The US Navy said in a statement that the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford entered the Southern Command (Southcom) area of responsibility on November 11, after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered it to “support Trump’s directives” to “dismantle transnational criminal organizations and combat narco-terrorism.”
“The increased presence of US forces in the Southcom area of responsibility will enhance the United States’ ability to detect, monitor, and disrupt illicit activities and actors that endanger the security and prosperity of the United States and our security in the Western Hemisphere,” Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said.
For Washington, this deployment – which includes 4,000 uniformed personnel and dozens of aircraft on board – will “improve and enhance existing capabilities to dismantle drug trafficking and degrade and dismantle transnational criminal organizations,” adding that it “provides” a “greater ability to project power through sustained operations at sea.”
In this sense, he explained, the USS Gerald R. Ford “can simultaneously eject and recover fixed-wing aircraft on its flight deck, day or night, in support of assigned operations.” Thus, it “strengthens” the joint forces already deployed in the region to “defeat and dismantle criminal networks that exploit our borders and shared maritime domains.”
At the beginning of September, the United States began attacks against alleged drug trafficking ships crossing the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean, and has since sunk twenty ships and killed 75 people.
The United Nations, as well as the governments of Venezuela and Colombia, have denounced these practices as extrajudicial killings, and have indicated that the victims will mainly be fishermen. In Caracas, there is fear of possible American military intervention, an extremism that Bogotá also warned against.
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