USS Gerald R. Ford, the world’s largest aircraft carrier, arrived in waters of the U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM), the combatant command announced Tuesday. The carrier and its escorts join one of the largest military buildups in the region in decades as President Donald Trump continues to try to cut off the flow of drugs from Colombia to the United States and exert pressure on Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro.
The carrier group’s addition will bring the total number of surface warships deployed in the region to 12, and adds an additional 4,500 U.S. troops to the approximately 10,000 already stationed there. The carrier’s air wing adds significant options for military action in the region, including extensive combat support capabilities for the Marine Amphibious Ready Group.
The forces deployed in the region have so far limited their activities to finding and destroying the small craft that smuggle drugs northward along clandestine maritime trade routes. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth announced Monday that the U.S. had destroyed two more such vessels, killing six men aboard.
The use of air strikes to attack and destroy boats alleged to be smuggling drugs has drawn mixed reactions from other nations. The United Kingdom, which oversees some territories in the Caribbean and has cooperated with the U.S. on identifying potential smuggling craft, announced Tuesday that it would limit its intelligence-sharing with the U.S. over questions of the legality of American operations. That same day, Colombia, traditionally one of the United States’ most important antinarcotics partners in the region, announced it would suspend all intelligence-sharing with the U.S. until the boat strikes are halted.
“The fight against drugs must be subordinated to the human rights of the Caribbean people,” said President Gustavo Petro, who has skirmished sharply with the Trump administration over its policies in the region several times.
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