The Donald Trump administration authorized the deployment of the Gerald R. Ford Aircraft Carrier Strike Group to the United States Southern Command (Southcom) area, where the American military has been carrying out an operation against drug trafficking cartels since the end of August.
“In support of the President’s directive to dismantle Transnational Criminal Organizations (TCOs) and combat narcoterrorism in defense of the Homeland, Secretary of War [Pete Hegseth] directed the Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group and embarked the aircraft carrier air wing to the US Southern Command (US Southcom) area of responsibility (AOR), said Pentagon chief spokesman Sean Parnell in a statement released this Friday (24) on X.
“The increased presence of U.S. forces in the U.S. Southcom AOR will reinforce the U.S. ability to detect, monitor, and disrupt illicit activities and actors that compromise the security and prosperity of the United States homeland and our security in the Western Hemisphere,” added the spokesperson, who said such forces will “enhance and expand existing capabilities to disrupt narcotics trafficking and degrade and dismantle TCOs.”
According to information from Fox News, the strike group includes the USS Gerald R. Ford, the largest aircraft carrier in the world, and the Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyers USS Mahan, USS Winston S. Churchill and USS Bainbridge.
Since late August, the United States has sent eight warships and a nuclear submarine to the Southcom region and also F-35 fighter jets to an airfield in Puerto Rico to carry out operations against drug cartels in the Caribbean. Additionally, US military helicopters and bombers flew near Venezuela.
Since then, American forces have carried out attacks against ten vessels in the region, eight in the Caribbean Sea and two in the Pacific Ocean, near Colombia.
This Friday, the US announced the tenth attack, against a boat in the Caribbean Sea belonging to the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, in which six people were killed.
Trump had also announced in recent days that he authorized lethal CIA operations in Venezuela and that American forces will carry out ground operations against cartels.
The American actions generated a reaction from the dictator of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, who claims that the operation is an excuse to remove him from power, and from the president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, who said that the US committed “extrajudicial executions” in attacks in the region.
Trump accused the Colombian president of being a “drug trafficker” and cut off financial aid to Colombia.
