Summary
- Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth deployed a carrier strike group.
- Deployment targets U.S. Southern Command area.
- Aim is to disrupt narcotics trafficking and criminal organizations.
The USS Gerald R. Ford, its onboard warplanes, and the other ships in its strike group are deploying to "dismantle Transnational Criminal Organizations... and counter narco-terrorism" in the region, according to Sean Parnell, Hegseth's associate defense secretary for public affairs.
The administration of President Donald Trump has destroyed at least ten suspected drug vessels off the beaches of Colombia and Venezuela in recent months.
An important step forward in that campaign is the deployment of a carrier strike group, which may portend the start of airstrikes against targets in Venezuela. President Nicolas Maduro and the Venezuelan government have come under fire from U.S. officials for allegedly supporting drug gangs and enabling mass migration towards the southern border of the United States.
Additionally, Trump recently approved CIA land operations in Venezuela. In recent days, Air Force bombers have also flown twice close to Venezuela.
Maduro, who faces the possibility of being deposed or assassinated, has alternated between appealing for peace and alerting the US about his nation's defense capabilities. In addition to a substantial stock of transportable Igla-S anti-air missiles, which Maduro claimed were dispersed across the nation, the Venezuelan military possesses a limited quantity of contemporary anti-ship and long-range anti-aircraft missiles, according to The War Zone.
Regional officials, including President Gustavo Petro of Colombia, have criticized the counter-drug effort, which legal experts say may be illegal.
The U.S. Naval Institute's fleet tracker indicates that the Ford and its escorting destroyers, the USS Winston Churchill, the USS Bainbridge, and the USS Mahan, have been in the Mediterranean Sea for the previous few weeks. They will join the land-based fighter jets, special operations units, thousands of Marines, and at least eight Navy ships already stationed in the Caribbean.
The highest level of U.S. seapower is represented by carrier strike groups. With ten to fourteen F/A-18 fighter planes per squadron, the Ford can bomb targets hundreds of miles inland from the ship. It is unknown how many Tomahawk guided cruise missiles are already aboard strike group destroyers or three Burke-class destroyers in the Caribbean, but each of the three Arleigh Burke-class destroyers has the capacity to carry around 90 of them.
How have South American governments responded to the deployment?
Venezuela, led by President Nicolas Maduro, has mobilized troops along its streamline and air defense capabilities, including the deployment of a large cache of Russian Igla- Santi-aircraft dumdums. Venezuelan Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino Lopez advised that any attack launched from bordering countries would meet direct retribution, viewing the U.S. military presence as a trouble aimed at governance change.
Colombia has condemned implicit U.S. ground troop conduct on its home as an irruption and violation of sovereignty. President Gustavo Petro has called for respect of transnational law in response to U.S. conduct targeting contended medicine trafficking.
Some countries like Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago have expressed support for the U.S. action against associations in the region.