Washington is deploying an aircraft carrier strike group to target drug-trafficking organisations in Latin America, the Pentagon said on Friday — a major escalation in the region that is stoking fears of wider conflict.
President Donald Trump, who campaigned on ending foreign military interventions, began a campaign in early September aimed at boats alleged to be smuggling narcotics, destroying at least 10 vessels in a series of strikes. That operation has grown into a broader military buildup that now includes 10 F-35 stealth jets and eight US Navy ships — moves that have alarmed Venezuela, where officials fear Washington’s true aim is to topple President Nicolás Maduro. Sending a carrier is likely to intensify those concerns.
Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said the deployment of the USS Gerald R. Ford and its escorts “will enhance and augment existing capabilities to disrupt narcotics trafficking and degrade and dismantle transnational criminal organisations (TCOs).”
The announcement followed Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth’s claim that an overnight strike destroyed a boat allegedly operated by the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua and killed six people in the Caribbean Sea. Hegseth posted footage on X of a stationary boat exploding and said the strike — conducted in international waters and at night — involved “six male narco-terrorists.” He added: “If you are a narco-terrorist smuggling drugs in our hemisphere, we will treat you like we treat Al-Qaeda. Day or NIGHT, we will map your networks, track your people, hunt you down, and kill you.”
Human rights concerns have been raised. The UN rights office warned that under international human-rights law lethal force may only be used as a last resort against individuals posing an imminent threat to life; otherwise it risks violating the right to life. Washington has not publicly released evidence proving that the strikes’ targets were smuggling narcotics. AFP’s tally, based on US figures, puts the death toll from the strikes at least 43.
Tensions in the region have spiked. Venezuela has accused the US of plotting to oust Maduro, who this week said his country possesses 5,000 Russian man-portable surface-to-air missiles to deter US forces. Flight-tracking data showed at least one US B-1B bomber flew over the Caribbean off Venezuela’s coast on Thursday, after several B-52 bombers circled the area last week in what the US military described as missions to deter adversary threats, improve crew training and ensure global force readiness.
Brazil has warned against outside military intervention, saying it would fuel resentment and could inflame politics across South America. Celso Amorim, a senior foreign-policy adviser to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, said an intervention “could inflame South America and lead to radicalisation of politics on the whole continent.”
Trump has also said he does not need congressional authorisation to strike Venezuela or other countries he accuses of drug trafficking, warning that “the land is going to be next” and likening drug cartels to ISIS.
