The Pentagon requests sending an aircraft carrier to Latin America, boosting the US military buildup in the region

Defense Minister Pete Hegseth The United States has ordered the USS Gerald R. Ford and its strike group to deploy to the US Southern Command area “to enhance the United States’ ability to detect, monitor, and disrupt illicit actors and activities that threaten the safety and prosperity of the United States,” Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said on social media.

The destroyer USS Ford, whose strike group includes five destroyers, is now deployed in the Mediterranean Sea sea. A person familiar with the operation told the Associated Press that one of its destroyers is in the Arabian Sea and another is in the Red Sea. Until Friday, the aircraft carrier was anchored in a port in Croatia on the Adriatic Sea.

The person, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive military operations, did not say how long it would take for the strike group to reach the waters off South America or whether the five destroyers would make the trip.

Deploying an aircraft carrier would bring significant additional resources to a region that has already seen an unusually large US military buildup in the Caribbean Sea and the waters off Venezuela. Latest publication and The pace of American strikes acceleratedincluding on Friday, has raised new speculation about how far the Trump administration could go with operations it says target drug trafficking, including whether it could… Attempt to overthrow Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. Faces Drug-related terrorism charges in the United States

Transferring thousands of additional troops to the region

There are already more than 6,000 sailors and Marines aboard eight warships in the region. If the entire USS Ford strike group arrived, it could bring approximately 4,500 additional sailors in addition to the nine aircraft squadrons assigned to the carrier.

The situation is further complicated by Tropical Storm Melissawhich remained almost stationary in the central Caribbean Sea with meteorologists warning that it could soon become a powerful hurricane.

Hours before Parnell announced the news, Hegseth said the Army had conducted the operation The tenth strike on a boat suspected of drug smugglingThis killed six people and brought the death toll in the attacks that began in early September to at least 43 people.

Hegseth said on social media that the ship that struck during the night was operated by a company Aragua gang train. This was the second time the Trump administration had done this He linked one of his operations to the gang Who grew up in a Venezuelan prison.

“If you are a dope terrorist smuggling drugs in our Western Hemisphere, we will treat you like we treat Al Qaeda,” Hegseth said in his post. “Day or night, we will map your networks, track your people, hunt you down, and kill you.”

The raids have escalated from one every few weeks when they began last month to three this week, killing at least 43 people. Two final hits It was carried out in the eastern Pacific, expanding the area where the military launched its attacks and moving to where much of the cocaine from the world’s largest producers, including Colombia, is smuggled.

Tensions rise with Colombia and the Trump administration Penalties imposed Friday on the Colombian president Gustavo PietroHis family and a member of his government due to accusations of involvement in the international drug trade.

Used in the experience of Venezuela and Aragua

Friday’s strike drew similarities to the first strike announced by the United States last month focusing on the Tren de Aragua, which was planned by the Trump administration. Classified as a foreign terrorist organization It is blamed for being the root cause of the violence and drug trafficking that plague some cities.

Although the origin of the latest boat was not mentioned, the Republican administration says that at least four of the boats it struck came from Venezuela. On Thursday, U.S. Army A pair of supersonic heavy bombers flew by Up to the coast of Venezuela.

Maduro says the US operations are the latest effort to force him from office.

Maduro on Thursday praised security forces and civilian militia for defensive exercises along about 2,000 kilometers (about 1,200 miles) of coast to prepare for the possibility of a US attack.

Within six hours, “100 percent of the entire coast of the country was covered in real time, with all equipment and heavy weapons to defend all of Venezuela’s coasts if necessary,” Maduro said during a government event broadcast on state television.

The US military presence is less about drugs and more about sending a message to countries in the region to align with American interests, according to Elizabeth Dickinson, International Crisis Group’s senior analyst for the Andean region.

“The expression I hear a lot is ‘drugs are the excuse.’ And everyone knows that,” Dickinson said. “And I think that message is very clear in the provincial capitals. So the message here is that the United States is determined to achieve specific goals. “It will use military force against leaders and countries that do not comply.”

Comparing the fight against drugs with the war on terrorism

Hegseth’s statements about the strikes have begun to have an impact recently Direct comparison Between the war on terrorism declared by the United States after the attacks of September 11, 2001, and the campaign launched by the Trump administration on drug traffickers.

President Donald Trump this month Declaring drug gangs illegal combatants They said the United States was in an “armed conflict” with them, relying on the same legal authority that the Bush administration used after the events of September 11.

When reporters asked Trump on Thursday whether he would ask Congress to issue a war declaration against the gangs, he said that was not the plan.

“I think we’re going to kill people who bring drugs into our country, okay? We’re going to kill them, you know? They’re going to be dead,” Trump said during a roundtable at the White House.

Lawmakers from both major political parties have expressed concerns about Trump issuing orders for military operations without obtaining congressional authorization or providing many details.

“I’ve never seen anything like this before,” said Sen. Andy Kim, D-N.J., who previously worked at the Pentagon and the State Department, including as an adviser in Afghanistan.

“We have no idea how far this is going to go, how this might, you know, put boots on the ground? Is it going to be escalatory in a way that might leave us stuck for a long time?” He said.

“It’s about time,” Republican Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart of Florida, who has long been involved in foreign affairs in the hemisphere, said of Trump’s approach.

Díaz-Balart said that while Trump “clearly hates war,” he is also not afraid to use the U.S. military in targeted operations. “I wouldn’t want to be in the shoes of any of these drug cartels.”