U.S. Sends Largest Warship to Caribbean Sea for Drug Smuggling Crackdown

A U.S. aircraft carrier is sailing into Latin American waters on Tuesday to join a large military buildup in the area, a signal that the Trump administration will continue to escalate its crackdown on drug smuggling out of Venezuela without congressional approval.

The carrier, the USS Gerald R. Ford, is the largest aircraft carrier in the world and has over 4,000 sailors. The move will put more than a dozen U.S. warships in the region. The U.S. in recent years has usually kept only one or two ships in the area.

Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said the forces “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.”

“These forces will enhance and augment existing capabilities to disrupt narcotics trafficking and degrade and dismantle Transnational Criminal Organizations,” he continued.

Since September, the Trump administration has ordered strikes killing at least 75 people in what it says is an effort to combat drug smuggling. The Trump administration has not sought congressional authorization for these strikes, and critics of the strikes within the Senate failed twice to pass measures to curb President Donald Trump’s powers to attack boats or Venezuela.

Trump suggested strikes within Venezuela were on the table, but backtracked late last month. The New York Times reported that the administration had approved covert CIA action in the country.

“I’m not gonna tell you what I’m gonna do with Venezuela, if I was gonna do it or if I wasn’t going to do it,” Trump said during an appearance on “60 Minutes” earlier this month.

Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro has said Trump is working to remove him.

Venezuela’s military is reportedly preparing for a U.S. ground or air attack and to respond with guerilla-style defense, as first reported by Reuters. The country’s military is plagued by old and deteriorating equipment, much of it Russian, and a lack of funding to pay troops.