Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell announced on Oct. 24 that U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has ordered the U.S.S Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier to the U.S. Southern Command area of responsibility. “The enhanced U.S. force presence in the USSOUTHCOM AOR will bolster U.S. 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,” Parnell said in a statement on X. “These forces will enhance and augment existing capabilities to disrupt narcotics trafficking and degrade and dismantle TCOs [transnational criminal organizations].” As of today, the Ford is in port in Split, Croatia and according to U.S. Naval Institute News, will take at least a week to get to Southcom.
The Ford is carrying four squadrons of F-18 Super Hornet fighter jets and other aircraft and is accompanied by the guided missile destroyers USS Bainbridge, USS Mahan, USS Winston S. Churchill, USS Mitscher, and USS Forrest Sherman. A source told U.S. Naval Institute News, however, that it’s not clear that all five destroyers will also be deploying to Southcom.
The Pentagon announcement followed by one day, the Oct. 23 flight of a pair of B-1B bombers from Dyess Air Force Base, Texas over the Caribbean. They reportedly came within 50 miles of the Venezuelan coast to the east of Caracas. This follows last week’s “bomber attack demonstration” involving three B-52’s orbiting over the Caribbean north of Caracas.
U.S. President Donald Trump, when asked on Oct. 23 at the White House about the flights, denied that they had happened. “No, it’s not accurate,” he said. “No, it’s false.”
Trump also indicated he would not be going to Congress to seek authorization for his military campaign against alleged narco-trafficking boats off the coasts of Venezuela and Colombia. “I don’t think we’re going to necessarily ask for a declaration of war,” he told reporters, according to the New York Times. “I think we are going to kill people that are bringing drugs into our country, OK? We are going to kill them, you know? They are going to be, like, dead.”
“The cartels are waging war against America and just like I promised in the campaign, we are waging war against them,” he said. “The land is going to be next.”
Trump remarked that Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth “may go to the Senate” to inform lawmakers as the campaign shifts from maritime operations to land strikes, and told Hegseth to “go to Congress, you tell them about it.” But, the Times mused, he appeared to be referring to a briefing rather than any formal request for approval. He appeared confident that lawmakers would support the action—or at least shy away from criticizing it. “What are they going to do? Say, ‘Gee, we don’t want to stop drugs pouring in?’” Trump said. “They’re killing 300,000 people a year.”
