Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro accused the United States of “fabricating a war” in the hours after the Trump administration announced the deployment of a carrier group to the Caribbean.
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth ordered the USS Gerald R. Ford and its strike group to deploy to the U.S. Southern Command area of operations to “bolster U.S. capacity to detect, monitor, and disrupt illicit actors and activities that threaten America’s security and prosperity,” Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said on social media.
“They are fabricating a new eternal war,” Maduro told state media. “They promised they would never again get involved in a war, and they are fabricating a war.”
The USS Ford, accompanied by five destroyers in its strike group, is currently operating in the Mediterranean Sea. One destroyer is positioned in the Arabian Sea and another in the Red Sea.
As of Friday, the aircraft carrier was docked in Croatia, along the Adriatic Sea.
Earlier Friday, Hegseth announced the military’s 10th strike against a suspected drug-smuggling boat, saying six people were killed, raising the total death count from the campaign that began in September to at least 43.
Maduro accused the U.S. of stepping up efforts to oust him, calling recent military moves a direct threat to Venezuela.
The embattled leader hailed nationwide defense drills Thursday, saying security forces and civilian militias secured 1,200 miles of coastline to prepare for any U.S. invasion scenario.
“In just six hours, every inch of our coastline was covered with real-time surveillance, equipment, and heavy weapons,” Maduro declared on state TV.
This month, Trump declared drug cartels to be unlawful combatants and said the U.S. is in an “armed conflict” with them, invoking legal authorities similar to those used after 9/11.
When asked Thursday whether he would seek a formal congressional declaration of war against the cartels, Trump said that was not his plan.
“I think we’re just going to kill people that are bringing drugs into our country,” he told reporters at a White House roundtable. “They’re going to be, like, dead.”
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