The U.S. military ordered the USS Gerald R. Ford to deploy off South America, escalating its regional presence. The Pentagon confirmed the move on Friday amid a growing buildup across the Caribbean and near Venezuelan waters.
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth directed the carrier and its strike group to operate under U.S. Southern Command. Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said the deployment aims to identify, monitor, and dismantle criminal networks that threaten U.S. security.
The USS Gerald R. Ford, supported by five destroyers, currently sails in the Mediterranean Sea. Sending the carrier south marks a significant show of American strength in a region already on high alert.
Pentagon Launches Aggressive Anti-Narcotics Offensive
Before announcing the carrier movement, Hegseth revealed the U.S. had carried out its tenth strike on a suspected drug-smuggling boat. The operation killed six people, raising the total death toll from similar missions since September to at least 43.
Officials linked the targeted vessel to the Tren de Aragua gang, a Venezuelan criminal organization the Trump administration has designated as a foreign terrorist group. Hegseth said the strike, the first conducted at night, took place in international waters.
He warned that the U.S. would hunt narcotics traffickers as it did terrorist networks, declaring, “Day or night, we will find you and eliminate you.”
Venezuela Defiant as Power Tensions Escalate
The Trump administration connected several intercepted boats to Venezuela, accusing Nicolás Maduro’s government of enabling narco-terror operations. U.S. bombers flew along Venezuela’s coast on Thursday, intensifying speculation about direct confrontation.
Maduro responded by praising military and civilian drills that covered 2,000 kilometers of coastline in real time. He vowed to defend national sovereignty, proclaiming on state television, “Not war, only peace—forever peace.”
Regional experts argue Washington’s actions signal more than a drug crackdown. Elizabeth Dickinson of the International Crisis Group said, “Everyone knows drugs are the excuse. The message is political dominance through force.”
Hegseth compared the campaign to the U.S. war on terror after 9/11. Trump called drug cartels “unlawful combatants” and rejected a formal war declaration, saying, “We’ll just kill the people bringing drugs into our country—they’ll be dead.”
