The American government has claimed that it is working to prevent criminal cartels from smuggling drugs. Some believe it is aiming to force the Nicolas Maduro regime from power.
The most advanced US aircraft carrier has travelled to the Caribbean Sea in what has been interpreted as a show of military power and a possible threat to Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro regime.
The USS Gerald R. Ford and other warships arrived in the area with a new influx of troops and weaponry on Sunday.
It is the latest step in a military build-up that the Donald Trump administration claims is aimed at preventing criminal cartels from smuggling drugs to America.
Since early September, US strikes have killed at least 80 people in 20 attacks on small boats accused of transporting narcotics in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific Ocean.
Mr Trump has indicated that military action would expand beyond strikes by sea, saying the US would „stop the drugs coming in by land“.
The US government has released no evidence to support its assertions that those killed in the boats were „narcoterrorists“, however.
The arrival of the USS Gerald R. Ford now rounds off the largest increase in US firepower in the region in generations.
