The USS Gerald Ford, the world’s largest aircraft carrier, has left the Mediterranean Sea and is bound for waters near Venezuela as the US continues its military buildup in the Caribbean that’s aimed at ousting Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.
The Pentagon first announced on October 24 that it was deploying the Gerald Ford and its strike group to the US Southern Command’s area of responsibility. The carrier transited through the Strait of Gibraltar on Tuesday and is now in the Atlantic Ocean, according to ship trackers.
The voyage is expected to take about a week, and the Gerald Ford and its strike group will join eight US warships currently operating in the Caribbean. The carrier was deployed with five guided-missile destroyers, but it’s unclear if they will all head to SOUTHCOM. According to USNI News, at least two of the destroyers are operating in the Red Sea while others have left the Mediterranean.
The deployment comes amid a US bombing campaign against alleged drug-running boats in the Caribbean and the Eastern Pacific Ocean, which so far has killed at least 64 people, according to numbers shared by the Trump administration.
The bombing campaign has come under increasing scrutiny as the Pentagon has not shared any evidence to back up its claims about what the boats are carrying and has admitted to Congress that it doesn’t know the identities of the people it has been extra-judicially executing.
The US has deployed significantly more firepower than is needed to bomb small, defenseless boats, and there have been multiple reports that say the Trump administration is preparing to bomb Venezuela. The US has also conducted at least three bomber flights off the coast of Venezuela in recent weeks.
