The Trump administration has announced the deployment of an aircraft carrier strike group to Latin America, the largest increase in the US military presence in the region in decades. Reuters reports.
The move is the latest sign of escalating tensions with Venezuela and Colombia. The Pentagon explained that the deployment of the aircraft carrier and escort ships should “enhance the US ability to detect, monitor and destroy illegal actors that pose a threat to the security of Americans and the stability of the Western Hemisphere”.
The group includes eight warships, a nuclear submarine and F-35 fighters. The flagship of the operation is the aircraft carrier Gerald R. Ford, commissioned in 2017. It is the largest warship in the world, with more than five thousand sailors on board and up to 75 aircraft, including F/A-18 Super Hornet and E-2 Hawkeye.
Recall that in recent weeks the United States has carried out at least ten air strikes on ships that, according to US intelligence, were transporting drugs in the Caribbean Sea. Media estimates suggest that the strikes killed about forty people, including Venezuelans.
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has accused Washington of trying to overthrow his regime. In a speech on Thursday, he said that in the event of a US invasion, “the working class will rise up for a general strike and millions of people will take to the streets with weapons.”
