Rubio has said his country does not recognise Maduro, who was widely accused of stealing last year’s election, as the legitimate leader of Venezuela, and has previously labelled its government a “trans-shipment organisation” that openly co-operates with those trafficking drugs.
American officials have accused Cartel de los Soles of working with the criminal organisation Tren de Aragua to send narcotics to the United States.
Build-up of firepower
The USS Gerald R. Ford rounds off the largest build-up of US firepower in the region in generations. With its arrival, the Operation Southern Spear includes nearly a dozen ships and about 12,000 sailors and marines.
The USS Gerald R. Ford is now in position off the coast of Venezuela.Credit: AP
The carrier strike group, which includes squadrons of fighter jets and guided-missile destroyers, transited the Anegada Passage near the British Virgin Islands on Sunday morning, the navy said.
Rear Admiral Paul Lanzilotta, who commands the strike group, said it would bolster an already large force of American warships to “protect our nation’s security and prosperity against narco-terrorism in the western hemisphere”.
‘I think everyone is watching this with sort of bated breath to see just how willing the US is to really use military force.’
Elizabeth Dickinson, International Crisis Group senior analyst
In Trinidad and Tobago, which is only 11 kilometres from Venezuela at its closest point, government officials said troops have begun training exercises with the US military that will run through much of the week.
Foreign Affairs Minister Sean Sobers described the joint exercises as the second in less than a month and said they were aimed at tackling violent crime on the island nation, which has become a stopover point for drug shipments headed to Europe and North America.
The Trinidad and Tobago prime minister has been a vocal supporter of the US military strikes.
The exercises will include Marines from the 22nd Expeditionary Unit who have been stationed aboard the navy ships that have been looming off Venezuela’s coast for months.
Venezuela’s government has described the training exercises as an act of aggression. It had no immediate comment on the arrival of the aircraft carrier.
Washington has insisted that the build-up is focused on stopping the flow of drugs into the US, but it has released no evidence to support its assertions that those killed in the boats were “narco-terrorists”. Trump has previously indicated military action would expand beyond strikes by sea, saying the US would “stop the drugs coming in by land”.
The US has long used aircraft carriers to pressure and deter aggression by other nations because its warplanes can strike targets deep inside another country. Some experts say the Gerald R. Ford is ill-suited to fighting cartels, but it could be an effective instrument of intimidation for Maduro in a push to get him to step down.
Pressure on Maduro
The Venezuelan leader has accused Washington of “fabricating” a war against him, and Venezuela’s government recently touted a “massive” mobilisation of troops and civilians to defend against possible American strikes.
Trump has justified the attacks on drug boats by saying the US is in “armed conflict” with drug cartels while claiming the boats are operated by foreign terror organisations.
He has faced pushback from leaders in the region, the UN human rights chief and US lawmakers, including Republicans, who have pressed for more information on who is being targeted and the legal justification for the boat strikes.
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Senate Republicans, however, recently voted to reject legislation that would have put a check on Trump’s ability to launch an attack against Venezuela without congressional authorisation.
Experts disagree on whether American warplanes may be used to strike land targets inside Venezuela. Either way, the 90,000-tonne warship is sending a message.
“This is the anchor of what it means to have US military power once again in Latin America,” said Elizabeth Dickinson, the International Crisis Group’s senior analyst for the Andes region. “And it has raised a lot of anxieties in Venezuela, but also throughout the region. I think everyone is watching this with sort of bated breath to see just how willing the US is to really use military force.”
Other experts warn that any US mission to oust Maduro could be fraught with difficulties and may have unintended consequences.
“Maduro has said something to the effect of, ‘You want to get rid of me? You think things will get better?’ It is something to consider because Maduro is a moderate [within Venezuela’s left-wing Chavismo movement] … and someone else could usurp power instead of the opposition with the backing of the military,” regional expert and Biden-era advisor Juan Gonzalez told CNN.
AP, Reuters
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