&imwidth=800&imheight=600&format=webp&quality=medium "US sending aircraft carrier strike group to Caribbean in major buildup to counter narcotics traffickers")
The US is sending an aircraft carrier strike group to the waters off Latin America in a major buildup that will dramatically increase the number of service members and ships dedicated to the Trump administration’s campaign to counter narcotics traffickers, the Pentagon said on Friday. Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said on X that Secretary of War Pete Hegseth “has directed the Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group and embarked carrier air wing to the US Southern Command” area of responsibility. Southern Command is responsible for the Caribbean Sea, Central and South America, and the surrounding waters.
Hegseth directed the aircraft carrier strike group to move to the Caribbean to support President Donald Trump’s effort to dismantle “Transnational Criminal Organizations” and to “counter narco-terrorism,” said Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell.
Parnell said the “enhanced US force presence” 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.”
The USS Gerald R. Ford is the Navy’s newest and most advanced aircraft carrier, having been commissioned in 2017. The carrier, which is the largest in the world, is powered by two nuclear reactors and can reach a top speed of 34.5 mph.
Deployment is notable escalation of US policy in the region
The carrier group will join eight US vessels that are already in the region. The deployment is a notable escalation of US policy in the region, as Trump has promised to target more cartel members and has firmly said these actions don’t require congressional approval.
It will nearly double the number of US forces in the area as part of the counter-drug mission. The US has eight surface ships there now, plus a nuclear-powered submarine, which adds up to about 6,000 sailors and marines in the region. The Ford Carrier Strike Group will add between 4,500 and 5,000 more sailors and marines to the mission.
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Officials said this deployment is also about sending a message to cartels that the US military can move a huge presence to the area quickly.
The news about the decision to send the carrier group comes after a vessel allegedly operated by the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua was struck in the Caribbean Sea. Hegseth said on X that the strike killed all six men who were on board.
The US has said it has conducted 10 strikes on drug-carrying boats since early September, killing 43 people so far. Eight strikes have been in the Caribbean Sea and two in the eastern Pacific.
Also Read: Fresh US strike on Venezuelan gang’s drug-smuggling boat kills 6 narco-terrorists, says Hegseth
Trump has been supportive of the strikes, claiming that every boat that “we knock out” is saving American lives. “Every boat that we knock out we save 25,000 American lives, so every time you see a boat and you feel badly you say, ‘Wow, that’s rough.’ It is rough, but if you lose three people and save 25,000 people,” Trump said at a press conference at the White House last week.
Cracking down on drug smuggling and reducing deaths from fentanyl overdoses was a key campaign promise for Trump last year.
