The U.S. Navy is deploying eight warships to the Caribbean and Pacific near Central and South America for a counter-narcotics mission targeting Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro
The U.S. Navy is unleashing a formidable armada of eight warships into the Caribbean and Pacific waters near Central and South America, flexing their muscles in a region rarely seeing such a show of force.
The armada is made up of three destroyers, a cruiser, an amphibious assault ship and a littoral combat ship, and is all part of a high-stakes “counter-narcotics” mission, according to an insider.
President Nicolás Maduro, who has been accused of running the Cártel de los Soles by his critics, is said to be the target of this mission, with the U.S. having doubled the bounty on Maduro’s head to a jaw-dropping $50million.
Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yvan Gil blasted Trump’s latest reward offer as “pathetic” political theatre, accusing the U.S. of cooking up a “desperate distraction” to dodge heat over the Jeffrey Epstein case fallout.
The fleet, packing the USS Gravely, USS Jason Dunham, USS Sampson, USS Lake Erie, and the USS Iwo Jima with over 2,500 Marines, is loaded with choppers, high-tech surveillance, and cruise missiles ready to strike.
They’re prowling near Panama, Mexico, and the Eastern Caribbean, although not quite at Venezuela’s doorstep, officials claim.
Coast Guard and law enforcement teams on board are primed to nab drug runners, while some are suggesting that bolder moves, such as missile strikes on cartel hideouts or even teaming up with Mexican forces to crush the crime lords could be on the cards.
In response, Maduro has sent 15,000 troops to Venezuela’s border with Colombia and launched his own fleet, complete with drones and naval patrols, to shove back at the U.S. invasion of his waters.
He’s rallying over 4 million militia members, vowing to “defend every inch” of Venezuelan soil against the “Yankee empire.”
Maduro also freed a few political prisoners, including a pal of opposition leader María Corina Machado, who’s dodging arrest in hiding. Trump’s team responded to this by further increasing up the heat, when they accused Maduro of teaming with Colombia’s FARC rebels to flood the U.S. with 30 tons of cocaine.
The U.S. has already snatched over $700million in Maduro’s dirty assets, including two government planes.
Yet, even as warships loom, Trump’s keeping oil flowing, re-upping energy and gas giant Chevron’s license to tap Venezuela’s massive crude reserves. He’s also kept deportation flights to Caracas rolling on, with nearly 8,000 Venezuelans sent back since February.
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