A spokesperson for the US military said on Friday that Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth ordered the USS Gerald Ford and five destroyers in its accompanying strike group to deploy to Latin America.
“The enhanced US force presence in the USSOUTHCOM AOR will bolster US 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,” Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said in a social media post, Al JAzeera reported.
But the deployment suggests a level of military firepower far beyond the Trump administration’s stated goals of combating drug trafficking, and comes as the US takes an increasingly hard line against Caracas, a longtime target of US ire.
The US already has about 6,000 sailors and Marines in the region on board eight warships, now to be joined by the USS Gerald Ford and the five destroyers in its strike group, along with an additional 4,500 personnel. The carrier is currently in the Mediterranean Sea, and it is unclear when it will arrive in Latin America.
MNA/
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