The US amphibious assault ship Iwo Jima from is seen from an SH-60 helicopter during Nato exercises in the sea off Norway in 2018. It is part of a group of warships being sent to Caribbean and Pacific waters. Photo / Laetitia Vancon, The New York Times
The United States Navy is sending eight warships to the Caribbean and Pacific waters near several Central and South American countries.
It’s a significant build-up for a region that has rarely seen such a large presence of US military vessels and a move that has escalated tensions with nearby Venezuela.
The ships are part of an “enhanced counter narcotics operation” to carry out drug interdiction missions in Latin America, a defence official told the Washington Post, speaking on the condition of anonymity to provide details that had not yet been made public.
The move comes weeks after Trump Administration officials said they are evaluating plans for using military force against drug cartels in what would be a major escalation of US involvement in Latin America.
In total, three destroyers, two landing dock ships, an amphibious assault ship, a cruiser and a littoral combat ship are either in the region or on their way.
The destroyers are each carrying detachments of US Coast Guard and law enforcement officials aboard who would carry out detentions or arrests in drug interdictions.
The news of a potential build-up of warships in the region has raised suspicions that the US might take military actions against Venezuela, a US adversary whose President, Nicolas Maduro, is accused by the Trump Administration of running a drug cartel.
The US this month raised the bounty for Maduro’s capture for the second time this year - doubling it from US$25 million to US$50m.
Maduro and his officials have announced the mobilisation of 15,000 troops to the Colombian border to “ensure peace in the area” and called on Venezuelans to enlist in militias to “fight the empire”.
The Navy would not say exactly where the ships will be operating, except that they are patrolling the Caribbean and awaiting more specific orders. The destroyers are “not right off the coast of Venezuela”, the official said.
A White House spokesperson did not respond to questions about the increased US presence in the region.
Two of the destroyers, the USS Gravely and the USS Jason Dunham, were most recently in the Eastern Caribbean, the official said. The destroyer USS Sampson was in the Pacific off the coast of Panama as of yesterday.
Last week, the amphibious assault ship Iwo Jima, with more than 2500 Marines on board, departed Norfolk, Virginia, for the Caribbean, accompanied by two transport ships that assist in troop landing operations.
Those vessels were delayed by high seas due to Hurricane Erin and were still off the East Coast yesterday. The littoral combat ship USS Minneapolis-St. Paul was in the Caribbean, and the cruiser USS Lake Erie was in the Pacific Ocean, off the coast of Mexico.
Together, the ships provide a wide array of options for the Administration.
The Iwo Jima carries helicopters; the destroyers and cruisers have advanced sensor and surveillance capabilities, as well as cruise missiles capable of striking targets on land.
It is rare to see this many assets sent to support US Southern Command, which is sometimes called the “forgotten AOR”, or area of responsibility, because it has struggled amid security demands in the Middle East and the Indo-Pacific to keep a regular presence of US troops or ships patrolling Central and South America.
In previous years, a normal presence would have been made up of Coast Guard vessels or an occasional littoral combat ship and regular missions by the Navy hospital ships USNS Mercy and USNS Comfort.
While it is not clear exactly what type of military action could be taken against drug cartels in the region, discussions have ranged from using Navy destroyers to launch missiles at cartel leaders or infrastructure to partnering more closely with Mexican authorities to target the criminal organisations, the Post reported this month.
The US Navy has also sent warships to conduct additional patrols in coastal waters near Mexico.
For some in the Venezuelan opposition, the movement of warships appears to signal a Trump Administration effort to apply pressure against the Maduro Government.
Late last month, the Treasury Department accused Maduro of leading the Venezuelan Cartel de los Soles and designated the group a terrorist organisation.
Ecuador and Argentina, both Trump-friendly governments, also joined in designating the Cartel de los Soles a terrorist organisation.
Asked by reporters about the possibility of sending troops to Venezuela, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Trump “is prepared to use every element of American power to stop drugs from flooding into our country and to bring those responsible to justice”.
“The Maduro regime is not the legitimate Government of Venezuela,” Leavitt said.
“It is a narco terror cartel, and Maduro, it is the view of this Administration, is not a legitimate president. He is a fugitive head of this cartel who has been indicted in the US for trafficking drugs into the country.”
Despite the rhetoric, the Trump Administration last month reissued a Biden-era licence to US energy giant Chevron to resume oil operations in Venezuela, home to the largest oil reserves in the world.
Two tankers chartered by Chevron reached US waters last week carrying Venezuelan crude, the country’s critical export and main source of income.
Even with warships heading to the Caribbean, the Trump Administration continues to co-ordinate deportation flights weekly with Venezuelan officials, which requires direct contact with senior officials in Caracas, according to a US official with knowledge of the flights. For months, the Maduro Government has been accepting an average of two deportation flights each week.
One such flight landed in Venezuela today. Another is scheduled for Saturday, the US official said.
“Behind the scenes,” the official said, “it’s business as usual.”
Nearly 8000 Venezuelans have been deported from the US since February, when deportation flights restarted after a year-long pause, according to ICE Flight Monitor, which tracks and analyses US enforcement flights.
Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau said this month that the Trump Administration was “very much against regime change in terms of the US basically being the driver”.
“I think you’ll be seeing some more actions in the coming days and weeks that will be sending messages, but ultimately the Venezuelan people have to rise up and claim their own freedom,” Landau told Donald Trump jnr, the President’s son, in an interview. “We can’t go around the world changing governments at our whim.”
In Venezuela, Maduro has called upon civilians and reservists to mobilise in militias, and has claimed that he will deploy more than four million militia members to prepare to defend the country.
“No one should touch Venezuelan territory because that territory is ours,” Maduro said on Tuesday.
In a video shared on state television and social media, militia members appear in front of Maduro, saying they will be ready “when the enemy arrives” at the Venezuelan coast and detailing a plan with a cardboard map of the area.
Maduro also released a group of political prisoners over the weekend, including a close ally of prominent opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, who remains in hiding in Venezuela in fear of arrest. The reasons behind the release - and the timing - are unclear.
The recent moves and rhetoric from the Trump Administration signal an attempt to “politically intimidate the Maduro regime”, said Carolina Jimenez Sandoval, the president of the Washington Office on Latin America think-tank.
Geoff Ramsey, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, said the White House is not interested in taking any actions that could affect its energy interests or immigration priorities.
Maduro understands that “military action is not going to happen in the short term”, Ramsey said, but he is aiming to project strength as Trump recalculates his approach to Venezuela.
“There are some elements of the Venezuelan opposition that are really hopeful that the US can provide a magical solution,” Ramsey said, “and I think that’s ultimately off the table.”
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