A US aircraft carrier strike group has arrived in Latin America, escalating a military build-up that Venezuela has warned could trigger a full-blown conflict as it announced its own “massive” deployment.
The USS Gerald R. Ford, the world’s largest aircraft carrier, entered an area under the control of the US Naval Forces Southern Command, which encompasses Latin America and the Caribbean, the command said in a statement on Tuesday.
The vessel’s deployment was ordered nearly three weeks ago, with the stated goal of helping to counter drug trafficking in the region.
It carries 4,000 sailors as well as fighter squadrons of F/A-18 Super Hornets, and was joined by guided-missile destroyers and a missile-defence command ship, the USS Winston S. Churchill.
Its presence “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 spokesman Sean Parnell said.
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