If the Oct. 31 rumor mongering, led by the Miami Herald and the Wall Street Journal about imminent U.S. strikes against targets in Venezuela, and the subsequent denials are about “rattling cages” in Venezuela, the escalating U.S. military buildup in the Caribbean is certainly a part of that strategy. The Washington Post ran a report over night, complete with tables and satellite imagery, detailing an ever-growing military deployment that will soon include the USS Gerald R Ford aircraft carrier and its escort of five guided missile destroyers (some report say only three are accompanying the carrier to the Caribbean), three guided missile destroyers and two guided missile cruisers already in the region, a nuclear-powered attack submarine, and two assault ships carrying 2,000 Marines. The deployment includes an array of combat and combat support aircraft, both in the region, on board ships, and operating from the U.S. The deployment also includes the MV Ocean Trader, a vessel that serves as a platform for a U.S. special operations task force.
From the beginning, the Pentagon’s buildup in the Caribbean has far exceeded what was needed for a counternarcotics operation, suggesting the mission was always “set to evolve,” Ryan Berg, the director of the Americas Program at the Center for Strategic & International Studies, told the Post. But Berg said the addition of the carrier strike group could indicate that the expanded operations are imminent. “The competition for these vessels is tremendous,” he said, because only three are deployed at any one time. Once the Ford arrives in the Caribbean next week, “It’s going to start a clock ticking and Trump will have about a month or so to make a major decision on a strike before he has to move” the vessel elsewhere.
U.S. Southern Command has been posting still and video imagery on X of the activities of the forces deployed in the Caribbean, including live-fire drills by Marines aboard the USS Iwo Jima. Sky News claimed that it verified satellite imagery showing the position of the ship less than 200 km away from the Venezuelan coast.
