«Lanza del Sur»: The United States has named its operation in the Caribbean, which, under the unproven pretext of fighting the drug trade, has resulted in boat bombings that mostly killed their occupants and increased pressure on Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. In a message on social media X, U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth provided no concrete details about the operation beyond explaining it will be led by a specific joint task force and U.S. Southern Command, which covers military operations in South America, Central America, and the Caribbean. The announcement came just three days after the arrival of the Pentagon's largest aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R. Ford, and its strike group—over 4,000 sailors and dozens of aircraft. «These attacks, and their growing human cost, are unacceptable,» demands the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk. The U.S. government has seized over $700 million in assets from Maduro, whom it accuses of leading the «Cartel of the Suns,» which the Trump administration declared a terrorist group in July. This military deployment has also strained Washington's relationship with Colombia and its president, Gustavo Petro, whom Trump has accused of being a «drug trafficker.» Since August, the U.S. has sunk 17 vessels and killed 66 people on boats in the Caribbean and the Pacific. Tensions between Bogotá and Washington intensified in September when the U.S. removed Colombia—the world's largest cocaine producer—from the list of nations cooperating in the fight against drug trafficking. Also in September, the U.S. revoked Petro's visa after his participation in a pro-Palestinian event in New York during the UN General Assembly. The deployment of U.S. naval forces in the Caribbean, off the coast of Venezuela, is now the largest in the country's history since the first Gulf War (1990-1991). The UN accused the U.S. of «violating international law.» On November 10, the U.S. Department of Defense sent ground forces to train in the jungles of Panama for the first time in decades, according to ABC News. On November 11, Venezuela's Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino López reported that 200,000 military personnel have been mobilized nationwide as part of new exercises in preparation for the «threats» from the United States. On November 14, the Kremlin expressed confidence that the United States will not take measures that destabilize the situation «around Venezuela» and the Caribbean region after the Pentagon announced «Lanza del Sur».
