In a case of (literal) gunboat diplomacy that would have made Teddy Roosevelt proud, the USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier group, the largest in the U.S. Navy, is currently steaming across the Atlantic, after crossing through the Gibraltar Strait from the Mediterranean, and is expected to arrive off the coast of Venezuela on Tuesday or Wednesday (Nov. 11-12) this week. Although media reports suggest that U.S. President Donald Trump has not yet made up his mind on how to proceed with Venezuela, the pressure against the Maduro government is rapidly escalating.
On Monday, Nov. 10, a group of 268,000 Venezuelans who became eligible for TPS ("temporary protected status") in March 2021 under the Biden administration, will lose that immigration status, the Miami Herald reported. Even before that change, “flights laden with deportees land in Venezuela twice a week, even as B-1s and B-52s threaten to bomb the place,” according to the British-based magazine The Economist. The British publication goes on to coach President Trump, admitting that the central goal must be to keep China and Russia out of the Americas: “America’s gunboat diplomacy revives a dark history of military intervention and coup-mongering in Latin America. Its return stems partly from worries that Iran, Russia and especially China are gaining influence.”
