Topline
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth sent the Navy’s most advanced aircraft carrier to the Caribbean in a significant escalation of the Trump administration’s military campaign against Latin American drug cartels, the Defense Department said Friday.
People sunbathe on the beach of Can Pere Antoni while the US aircraft carrier “USS Gerald R. Ford” is anchored in the bay of Palma. (Photo by Clara Margais/picture alliance via Getty Images)
dpa/picture alliance via Getty Images
Key Facts
Hegseth deployed the Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group to the Caribbean “in support of the President’s directive to dismantle Transnational Criminal Organizations and counter narco-terrorism,” Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell announced Friday on X.
Parnell said enhanced military presence “will bolster U.S. 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 move comes after President Donald Trump warned Thursday the U.S. military could expand its strikes at sea on suspected drug smuggling vessels to land, part of a campaign against drug cartels.
The campaign is also reportedly designed to remove Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, who Trump officials have claimed helms the country’s drug cartel network.
The deployment comes after Hegseth announced earlier Friday a 10th strike since early September against a suspected drug-trafficking vessel, with the majority of the attacks occurring near the coast of Venezuela.
Tangent
Six were killed in an overnight strike against a suspected drug boat in the Caribbean, Hegseth announced Friday. He claimed the boat was operated by the Tren de Aragua gang out of Venezuela. The Trump administration also attacked a boat in the Pacific earlier this week, the first strike outside of the Caribbean. At least 46 people have been killed in the attacks since they began in September.
Key Background
Trump on Thursday said he could seek congressional approval to expand the sea attacks to land, as his administration has faced bipartisan criticism for conducting the strikes without congressional authorization. The administration argues the military intervention is necessary, because cartels pose an imminent threat to U.S. citizens.
Further Reading
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