US Deploys Largest Aircraft Carrier Strike Group to Caribbean Amid Venezuela Tensions

The United States has deployed the USS Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group to the Caribbean as part of a significant military escalation aimed at combating drug trafficking and narco-terrorism in Latin America. This strike group, the world’s largest naval deployment including multiple destroyers and aircraft squadrons, is positioned under U.S. Southern Command to enhance detection, monitoring, and disruption of illicit activities threatening U.S. and regional security. President Donald Trump has authorized aggressive military actions against drug traffickers, describing the campaign as a state of armed conflict and expressing no intent to seek congressional approval for continued operations. The deployment supports an intensified U.S. presence involving over 10,000 troops, F-35 stealth fighters, bombers, drones, and lethal strikes on drug-running vessels linked to cartels such as Tren de Aragua. This military buildup signals a robust shift in U.S. strategy towards weakening Venezuela's Nicolás Maduro regime, which Washington accuses of facilitating drug trafficking, while raising concerns about the potential for broader conflict in the region. The operation is the largest American military presence in the Caribbean since the Cold War and aims to reshape security and diplomatic dynamics in the Western Hemisphere.