The buildup comes as it continues to blow up alleged drug-trafficking boats in the waters around South America.
The main target for the flurry of activity appears to be Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, whom the administration has called an “illegitimate leader.” The country’s attorney general said over the weekend there is “no doubt” that Trump wants to topple Maduro’s regime.
On Friday, the Defense Department (DOD) ordered the USS Gerald R. Ford and its escort ships to head to the U.S. Southern Command (Southcom) area of responsibility, significantly expanding the U.S. military presence, which already counts around 10,000 U.S. forces supporting counternarcotics operations.
“So I think that’s another example of the president trying to scare the pants off of Nicolás Maduro and his top generals in order to hopefully create … some sort of breaks within the regime, which might lead to a change that might be more favorable to an opening with the opposition,” said Christopher Hernandez-Roy, the deputy director and senior fellow of Americas Program at Center for Strategic and International Studies.
He called the B-52 bombers that flew for hours off the Venezuelan coast action meant “to intimidate” the country and its military. He said the U.S. “seems to be telegraphing some sort of imminent kinetic action inside Venezuela.”
Trump and his close allies have raised the prospects of the U.S. conducting land strikes in Venezuela as the White House has ramped up pressure against Maduro, accusing him of being the leader of Tren de Aragua, a transnational criminal gang designated as a foreign terrorist organization by the U.S. government, that traces its roots to Venezuela.
Over the weekend, Trump signaled land strikes could come soon.
“We’re going to see with Venezuela. I can tell you one thing. We stopped all drugs from coming in by sea. I will stop all drugs from coming in by land very shortly. You’ll see that starting. They’re not going to want to do it. You’re going to see drugs stopping into our country,” the president told reporters Saturday.
Maduro accused the administration on Friday of “fabricating” a war against him after the Pentagon ordered USS Gerald R. Ford, the world’s largest aircraft carrier with over 4,500 sailors, to sail to SouthComm after being docked in the Adriatic Sea. It carries a squadron of F/A-18 Super Hornets and helicopter squadrons.
The president initially said last week that the administration may go to Congress for authorization to strike drug cartels that are smuggling on land. But a day later, he dismissed the need to ask Capitol Hill lawmakers for a declaration of war for attacks against alleged cartel boats, operations that have raised questions among senators in both parties and have taken place off the coast of Venezuela and in the eastern Pacific Ocean.
Read the full report at thehill.com.
