The arrival of the Ford and three Navy destroyers with the ability to launch missiles adds about 5,500 soldiers to a force of 10,000 soldiers already in the region, approximately half on land in Puerto Rico.
Mexico City, November 11 (However).– The aircraft carrier largest and most advanced of the Navy USAhe Gerald R. Fordmoved to the region of Caribbean this Tuesday, “increasing the capacity to attack ships suspected of transporting drugs or ground targets in Venezuelaas the Trump administration weighs new military measures aimed at overthrowing the country’s President, Nicolas Maduro”he says this afternoon The New York Times.
Donald Trump ensures that Nicolas Maduro He is the leader of a group of drug traffickers. He has never presented evidence and some even disagree about the involvement of Venezuela in the criminal networks that move drug to American cities.
At the same time, a statement signed by the Minister of Defense of Venezuela, Vladimir Padrino López, reports a deployment of Venezuelan forces this Tuesday. It includes “land, air, naval, river and missile means”; weapons systems, military units, the Bolivarian Militia, citizen security bodies and commands for comprehensive defense.” The maneuvers are part of “a higher phase of the Independence Plan 200”, a military deployment that Venezuela activated last September in defense of the territory.
🇻🇪 Vladimir Padrino López makes it clear:
“We are lovers of peace, but if they touch Venezuela… they will get us here.”
From the streets to the communes, the people are ready to defend the country to the death.#Venezuela pic.twitter.com/iFpSNeA63X
— ✨Franci Cabrera ✨ (@FrancaVianaa) November 11, 2025
The Navy only identified the location of the Ford and its three accompanying warships as “in the western Atlantic,” according to a statement. But, the newspaper says, a senior military official said the ships had moved to the Caribbean region, nearly three weeks after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth abruptly ordered the aircraft carrier to leave the eastern Mediterranean and head quickly to Latin American waters in a substantial escalation of US military power in the area.
“News of the Ford’s arrival came a day after Hegseth announced that six people had been killed on Sunday in two more attacks on suspected drug smuggling ships in the eastern Pacific Ocean. The latest attacks brought the campaign’s death toll to 76 people in 19 attacks in the Pacific and Caribbean Sea since early September,” the report says. Times.
The arrival of the Ford and three Navy destroyers with missile-launching capabilities adds about 5,500 troops to a force of 10,000 soldiers already in the region, approximately half on land in Puerto Rico and the other half aboard eight warships. With more than 15,000 soldiers, the US deployment is the largest in the region in decades.
— USNAVSO_4THFLT (@NAVSOUS4THFLT) November 11, 2025
“Aircraft carriers have toured Caribbean and Latin American waters before, on what the Navy calls ‘goodwill’ tours. But shortening Ford’s scheduled Mediterranean deployment by several months and redirecting it to Latin America for a possible combat mission is highly unusual,” they told The New York Times current and former Navy officials.
In December 1989, Manuel Noriega of Panama was detained by US troops who had invaded the country with orders to capture him. They ended up surrounding his last hideout, tormenting him for 10 days with speakers blaring songs by groups like Black Sabbath and Guns N’ Roses. He surrendered, handcuffed.
An analysis published in the newspaper and composed by Michael Crowley says that as Trump considers military action in Venezuela, the parallels between Noriega and Maduro are becoming increasingly significant, and some Trump officials expect the Venezuelan president to suffer a similar fate. Especially the Latin American right and in particular, Corina Machado, the questioned Nobel Peace Prize winner.
Like Noriega more than 30 years ago, Maduro has been indicted on drug trafficking charges. And US officials maintain that the Venezuelan is not a foreign leader, but a criminal who must be “brought to justice,” as US Secretary of State Marco Rubio recently said.