Tuesday, November 11. The largest aircraft carrier of the US Navy, the USS Gerald R. Ford, along with its strike group, has arrived in Latin America. On board are more than 4,000 sailors and dozens of tactical aircraft, the US Navy reported.
The Pentagon described this aircraft carrier as «the largest in the world» and noted that the arrival of naval forces occurred after US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth ordered the Carrier Strike Group to support President Donald Trump's directive to dismantle alleged transnational criminal organizations and combat supposed «narco-terrorism» «in defense of the nation».
This deployment is taking place as the Trump administration reinforces its military presence in the area of responsibility of the US Southern Command (Southcom) and attacks vessels allegedly involved in drug trafficking on both sides of South America.
«The increased presence of US forces in the area of responsibility of the US Southern Command will enhance the United States' ability to detect, monitor, and disrupt the activities and illicit actors that compromise the security and prosperity of US territory and our security in the Western Hemisphere,» stated the principal Pentagon spokesperson, Sean Parnell, in a press release on Tuesday.
Parnell also indicated that these forces «will improve and expand existing capabilities to disrupt drug trafficking and weaken and dismantle transnational criminal organizations».
The USS Ford, whose escort in the region includes the USS Bainbridge, USS Mahan, and USS Winston Churchill, will bolster US firepower near Venezuela, as the Department of War (formerly known as the Department of Defense) has deployed eight warships, F-35 fighters, and at least one nuclear-powered submarine in the Caribbean.
The US armed forces have been attacking vessels allegedly involved in drug trafficking in the Caribbean Sea and the Eastern Pacific, conducting 17 operations that have resulted in the deaths of at least 76 people, whom the government has labeled «narco-terrorists».
