According to reports, US President Donald Trump has ordered three US warships to be stationed off Venezuela’s coast as part of a US military effort to combat drug trafficking by Latin American crime cartels.
The Trump administration is reportedly using the warships as a result of Nicolas Maduro’s recent doubled arrest reward to $50 million for what the US claims are drug-related trafficking-related offenses, which is increasing the pressure on the Venezuelan president.
An amphibious squadron made up of three guided missile destroyers from the US Aegis class is heading to Venezuela, according to sources who spoke to Reuters and AFP news agencies on Wednesday. It could arrive as early as Sunday.
On condition of anonymity, two Reuters sources with knowledge of the deployment disclosed that 4,500 US service members, including 2, 200 Marines, are being transported to Venezuelan coast by the USS San Antonio, USS Iwo Jima, and USS Fort Lauderdale.
The sources declined to provide more information about the squadron’s specific mission. However, they have asserted that recent deployments are intended to combat regional “narco-terrorist” threats to US national security.
In response to US “threats,” which included the reward for his arrest and the launch of a new anti-drug operation in the Caribbean, Maduro declared on Monday that he would be deploying millions of militia members across Venezuela.
In a televised address, Maduro stated that “I will activate a special plan with more than 4.5 million militiamen to ensure coverage of the entire national territory – militias that are prepared, activated, and armed.”
Washington has charged Maduro with leading the cartel of the Suns, a drug trafficking organization based in Venezuela.
The cartel was accused of supporting the Venezuelan crime group Tren de Aragua and Mexico’s Sinaloa drug cartels, both of which were earlier identified as foreign terrorist organizations, last month by the US Department of Treasury as a global terrorist organization.
President Trump has been very explicit and consistent, and he is ready to use every tool of his power to stop the flow of drugs into our nation and prosecute those responsible, according to White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt on Tuesday.
According to Leavitt, “Maduro is not a legitimate president; he is the cartel’s fugitive head, who has been indicted in the United States for trafficking drugs into this country,” according to Leavitt.
According to Lucia Newman, the editor of Al Jazeera Latin America, Maduro has ordered the grounding of all aerial drones for the next 30 days, “indicating that he might be anticipating an attack from the air rather than the sea.”
The president’s pledge to send warships to Latin America and the Caribbean to stop the flow of drugs to the United States is perceived as more than just a threat to Venezuela. It might be applied to a lot of different nations in this area,” Newman said.
According to Newman, “they say it could be Venezuela today or any day.”
Source: Aljazeera
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