Why is the US building up its forces in the Caribbean as tensions with Venezuela grow?
The locals were unexpected to watch. Alfredo Cedeno, a 32 -year -old health technician who photographed the cruiser, said, “I didn’t know the ship would pass … I was surprised.”
San Diego -based 567 -meter ship, about 9,800 tons. Trump administration leads to a significant marine accumulation near Venezuela waters.
A larger US presence in the region
Washington says distribution is part of an anti -drug smuggling operation. According to Reuters, seven warships and a nuclear -energy submarine already bring more than 4,500 sailors and sailors in the Caribbean or soon.
The force contains USS San Antonio, USS IWO Jima and USS Fort Lauderdale amphibious ships. Some can carry helicopters, others can start Tomahawk cruise missiles.
The US also accelerated air surveillance. Authorities confirmed that P-8 Poseidon spy planes flew on international waters in the Caribbean to collect intelligence.
Drug War Description
President Donald Trump made the fight against drug cartels a central policy target. US officials told Reuters that the current operation was to resist the penal networks in the hemisphere. White House Deputy General Manager Stephen Miller, military accumulation “drug smuggling organizations, crime cartels and these foreign terrorist organizations to fight and dismantle,” he said. “They are there to ensure that drug trafficking is not happening at the moment,” a senior management official said to journalists.
But the questions continue. According to the UN Drug and Crime Office, most of the cocaine to the north is smuggling through the Pacific, not Atlantic. US Drug Application Administration figures pass 74 percent of sea shipments from South America through the Pacific. On the contrary, the Caribbean is more widely used for hidden flights.
Washington’s accusations against Maduro
The US has intensified its pressure on Venezuela in recent months. In August, Washington doubled his prize for the arrest of President Nicolas Maduro for $ 50 million, accusing him with leadership of a drug cartel and relations with crime groups.
“The Maduro regime is not the legitimate government of Venezuela. Narco-Teror Cartel. Maduro is not a legitimate president. This drug cartel is a illegal president of this drug cartel.”
Venezuela’s response
Karakas rejected the charges and described the US maritime accumulation as a direct threat. Venezuelan Defense Minister General Vladimir Padrino, a civil defense meeting, “Venezuel people know who behind these military threats against our country. We are not drug smugglers, we are noble and hardworking people.”
In response, Maduro claimed that he had mobilized more than four million militia members and announced the patrols of regional waters with drones and navy ships.
Venezuela’s United Nations Ambassador Samuel Moncada said that the US deployment aims to justify “an intervention against a legitimate president”.
Experts weighs
External observers see military accumulation as more than an effort to practice a drug. Tulane University Venezuela analyst David Smilde, Reuters, “I think what they are trying to do, maximum pressure on the regime to see what they can break, to put real military pressure. This armed diplomacy. Old -fashioned tactics.”
Christopher Hernandez-Roy of the Strategic and International Research Center presented a similar view. “It’s too big to be related to drugs. It is too small to be related to an invasion. But it is important enough to be there to do something,” he said.
The US has a long history of intervention in Latin America. In 1989, approximately 28,000 soldiers invaded Panama to overthrow the dictator Manuel Noriega. Although US officials say that the current power is not large enough for a similar operation, Venezuelan leaders are afraid that history can repeat itself.
For now, the coldness in the Caribbean seems to be more like about seizing drug shipments and signaling. Is the question, the signals just to put pressure on Maduro or the desire to lead for something else?
(Toi, Reuters, AFP inputs)
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