US deploys aircraft carrier amid hardening stance towards Venezuela

The Trump administration has carried out a serious of provocative moves that point towards possible military action.

The United States will send an aircraft carrier strike group to Latin America, in a major escalation of its military presence in the region amid speculation of a possible effort to overthrow the Venezuelan government.

A spokesperson for the US military said on Friday that Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth ordered the USS Gerald Ford and five destroyers in its accompanying strike group to deploy to Latin America.

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“The enhanced US force presence in the USSOUTHCOM AOR will bolster US capacity to detect, monitor, and disrupt illicit actors and activities that compromise the safety and prosperity of the United States homeland and our security in the Western Hemisphere,” Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said in a social media post.

But the deployment suggests a level of military firepower far beyond the Trump administration’s stated goals of combating drug trafficking, and comes as the US takes an increasingly hard line against Caracas, a longtime target of US ire.

The US already has about 6,000 sailors and Marines in the region on board eight warships, now to be joined by the USS Gerald Ford and the five destroyers in its strike group, along with an additional 4,500 personnel. The carrier is currently in the Mediterranean Sea, and it is unclear when it will arrive in Latin America.

Trump said last week that he had authorised the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the US international spy agency, to carry out operations in Venezuela, and has suggested that attacks on Venezuelan territory could soon follow.

As a pretext for those moves, the Trump administration has pushed the baseless claim that the government of President Nicolas Maduro is coordinating with criminal groups to “invade” the US via drugs and immigration. Venezuela plays a minor role in the global drug trade, and internal US intelligence assessments have found little evidence for the claim that the Maduro government controls criminal groups.

Since early September, the US has carried out an increasing number of military strikes on vessels in the region that it has alleged, often without corroborating evidence, are transporting drugs from Venezuela. UN officials and scholars of international law have said that the strikes are in clear violation of US and international law and amount to extrajudicial executions.

The Maduro government has said that it will respond forcefully to any attempt to topple the government by the US.

“Interpret it however you want: the Armed Forces will not allow a government here that is subservient to the interests of the United States,” Foreign Minister Vladimir Padrino said on Friday.

“This is the most significant military threat in the last 100 years,” he added. “We do not want war, we want peace.”

The US has thus far rebuffed calls to lower tensions, with Trump responding affirmatively last week when asked about reports that Maduro had offered significant concessions but seemed to wave them aside.