US to deploy USS Gerald R. Ford to Latin America

The U.S. military is sending an aircraft carrier to the waters off South America, in the latest escalation and buildup of military forces in the region, the Pentagon announced Friday.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered the USS Gerald R. Ford and its strike group to deploy to U.S. Southern Command to “bolster U.S. capacity to detect, monitor, and disrupt illicit actors and activities that compromise the safety and prosperity of the United States,” Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said in a social media post.

The USS Ford, which has five destroyers in its strike group, is currently deployed to the Mediterranean Sea. A person familiar with the operation told The Associated Press that one of those destroyers is in the Arabian Sea and another is in the Red Sea. At the time of the announcement, the USS Ford was in port in Croatia on the Adriatic Sea.

The person, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive military operations, would not say how long it would take for the strike group to arrive in the waters off South America or if all five destroyers would make the journey.

Deploying an aircraft carrier is a major escalation of military power in a region that has already seen an unusually large U.S. military buildup in the Caribbean Sea and the waters off Venezuela.

Hours before Parnell announced the news, Hegseth said the military had conducted the 10th strike on a suspected drug-running boat , leaving six people dead and bringing the death count for the strikes that began in early September to at least 43 people.

The Pentagon told reporters it had nothing further to add beyond the statement.

Hegseth said the vessel struck overnight was operated by the Tren de Aragua gang . It was the second time the Trump administration has tied one of its operations to the gang that originated in a Venezuelan prison.

The pace of the strikes has quickened in recent days from one every few weeks when they first began to three this week, killing a total of at least 43 people since September. Two of the most recent strikes were carried out in the eastern Pacific Ocean, expanding the area where the military has launched attacks and shifting to where much of the cocaine from the world’s largest producers is smuggled.

In a 20-second black and white video of the strike posted to social media, a small boat can be seen apparently sitting motionless on the water when a long thin projectile descends, triggering an explosion. The video ends before the blast dies down enough for the remains of the boat to be seen again.

Hegseth said the strike happened in international waters and boasted that it was the first one conducted at night.

“If you are a narco-terrorist smuggling drugs in our hemisphere, we will treat you like we treat Al-Qaeda,” Hegseth said in the post. “Day or NIGHT, we will map your networks, track your people, hunt you down, and kill you.”

US focus on Venezuela and Tren de Aragua

The strike drew parallels to the first announced by the U.S. last month by focusing on Tren de Aragua, which the Trump administration has designated a foreign terrorist organization and blamed for being at the root of the violence and drug dealing that plague some cities.

While not mentioning the origin of the latest boat, the Republican administration says at least four of the boats it has hit have come from Venezuela.

The attacks and an unusually large U.S. military buildup in the Caribbean Sea and the waters off Venezuela have raised speculation that the administration could try to topple Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro , who faces charges of narcoterrorism in the U.S.

In the latest move, the U.S. military flew a pair of supersonic heavy bombers up to the coast of Venezuela on Thursday.

The Trump administration maintains that it’s combating drug trafficking into the United States, but Maduro argues that the operations are the latest effort to force him out of office.

Maduro on Thursday praised security forces and a civilian militia for defense exercises along some 2,000 kilometers (about 1,200 miles) of coastline to prepare for the possibility of a U.S. attack.

In the span of six hours, “100% of all the country’s coastline was covered in real time, with all the equipment and heavy weapons to defend all of Venezuela’s coasts if necessary,” Maduro said during a government event shown on state television.

The U.S. military’s presence is less about drugs than sending a message to countries in the region to align with U.S. interests, according to Elizabeth Dickinson, the International Crisis Group’s senior analyst for the Andes region.

“An expression that I’m hearing a lot is ‘Drugs are the excuse.’ And everyone knows that,” Dickinson said. “And I think that message is very clear in regional capitals. So the messaging here is that the U.S. is intent on pursuing specific objectives. And it will use military force against leaders and countries that don’t fall in line.”

Comparing the drug crackdown to the war on terror

Hegseth’s remarks around the strikes have recently begun to draw a direct comparison between the war on terrorism that the U.S. declared after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and the Trump administration’s crackdown on drug traffickers.

President Donald Trump this month declared drug cartels to be unlawful combatants and said the U.S. was in an “armed conflict” with them, relying on the same legal authority used by the Bush administration after 9/11.

When reporters asked Trump on Thursday whether he would request Congress issue a declaration of war against the cartels, he said that wasn’t the plan.

“I think we’re just going to kill people that are bringing drugs into our country, OK? We’re going to kill them, you know? They’re going to be like, dead,” Trump said during a roundtable at the White House with homeland security officials.

Lawmakers from both major political parties have expressed concerns about Trump ordering the military actions without receiving authorization from Congress or providing many details. Democrats have insisted the strikes violate international law.

“I’ve never seen anything quite like this before,” said Sen. Andy Kim, D-N.J., who previously worked in the Pentagon and the State Department, including as an adviser in Afghanistan.

“We have no idea how far this is going, how this could potentially bring in, you know, is it going to be boots on the ground? Is it going to be escalatory in a way where we could see us get bogged down for a long time?” he said.

But Republican Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart of Florida, who has long been involved in foreign affairs in the hemisphere, said of Trump’s approach: “It’s about time.”

While Trump is a president who “obviously hates war,” he also is not afraid to use the U.S. military in targeted operations, Diaz-Balart said.

“I would not want to be in the shoes of any of these narco-cartels,” he added.

Associated Press writers Regina Garcia Cano in Caracas, Venezuela, and Ben Finley and Lisa Mascaro in Washington contributed to this report.

美国五角大楼周五宣布，美军将派遣一艘航空母舰前往南美洲附近海域，这是该地区军事力量最新一次升级和集结。

国防部长皮特·赫格塞斯下令“杰拉尔德·R·福特”号航空母舰及其打击群部署到美国南方司令部，以“加强美国侦测、监控和打击危害美国安全和繁荣的非法行为者和活动的能力”，五角大楼发言人肖恩·帕内尔在社交媒体上发帖称。

“福特”号航空母舰所在的打击群共有五艘驱逐舰，目前部署在地中海。一位知情人士告诉美联社，其中一艘驱逐舰位于阿拉伯海，另一艘位于红海。消息公布时，“福特”号正停泊在亚得里亚海沿岸的克罗地亚港口。

这位因需讨论敏感军事行动而要求匿名的人士拒绝透露打击群需要多长时间才能抵达南美洲附近海域，也拒绝透露五艘驱逐舰是否都会完成此次航程。

在加勒比海和委内瑞拉附近海域，美国已经进行了异常大规模的军事集结，而部署航空母舰则标志着该地区军事力量的重大升级。

在帕内尔宣布这一消息的几个小时前，赫格塞斯表示，军方对一艘涉嫌走私毒品的船只进行了第 10 次打击，造成 6 人死亡，使 9 月初开始的打击行动造成的死亡人数至少达到 43 人。

五角大楼告诉记者，除了这份声明之外，他们没有其他补充。

赫格塞斯表示，昨晚被击中的船只由“阿拉瓜列车”团伙操控。这是特朗普政府第二次将自身行动与这个起源于委内瑞拉监狱的团伙联系起来。

近几日，空袭的频率明显加快，从最初每隔几周一次增加到本周的三次，自9月以来已造成至少43人死亡。最近两次空袭发生在东太平洋，扩大了军方发动袭击的区域，并将袭击目标转移到了全球最大可卡因生产国走私可卡因的主要区域。

在社交媒体上发布的一段20秒黑白视频中，可以看到一艘小船看似静止地停泊在水面上，这时一枚细长的物体落下，引发爆炸。视频在爆炸声尚未完全平息，小船残骸尚未完全显现之前就结束了。

赫格塞斯表示，罢工发生在国际水域，并吹嘘说这是第一次在夜间进行的罢工。

“如果你是在我们半球走私毒品的恐怖分子，我们将像对待基地组织一样对待你，”赫格塞斯在帖子中写道。“无论白天黑夜，我们都会绘制你的网络图，追踪你的人员，追捕你，并将你击毙。”

美国关注委内瑞拉和特伦德阿拉瓜

此次打击行动与美国上个月宣布的首次打击行动有相似之处，都以“阿拉瓜列车”为目标。特朗普政府已将该组织认定为外国恐怖组织，并指责其是一些城市暴力和毒品交易的根源。

虽然没有提及最新一艘船的来源，但共和党政府表示，他们击中的至少四艘船来自委内瑞拉。

这些袭击事件以及美国在加勒比海和委内瑞拉附近海域异常大规模的军事集结，引发了人们的猜测，即美国政府可能试图推翻委内瑞拉总统尼古拉斯·马杜罗，他目前在美国面临毒品恐怖主义指控。

最新举措是，美国军方于周四派出两架超音速重型轰炸机飞抵委内瑞拉海岸。

特朗普政府坚称其正在打击向美国贩运毒品的行为，但马杜罗则认为这些行动是迫使他下台的最新举措。

马杜罗周四赞扬了安全部队和民兵组织在约 2000 公里（约 1200 英里）的海岸线上进行的防御演习，以应对美国可能发动的攻击。

马杜罗在国家电视台播出的一次政府活动中表示，在短短六个小时内，“全国所有海岸线都得到了100%的实时覆盖，配备了所有必要的设备和重型武器，以便在必要时保卫委内瑞拉的所有海岸线”。

国际危机组织安第斯地区高级分析师伊丽莎白·迪金森表示，美国军队的存在与其说是为了打击毒品，不如说是为了向该地区的国家发出信号，要求它们与美国的利益保持一致。

迪金森说：“我经常听到的一种说法是‘毒品只是借口’。人人都知道这一点。我认为这个信息在地区各国首都非常明确。所以，这里传递的信息是，美国决心实现特定目标。它将对不服从的领导人和国家动用武力。”

将禁毒行动与反恐战争进行比较

最近，赫格塞斯就此次空袭发表的言论开始将美国在 2001 年 9 月 11 日袭击事件后宣布的反恐战争与特朗普政府打击毒品走私者的行动进行直接比较。

本月，唐纳德·特朗普总统宣布毒品卡特尔为非法战斗人员，并表示美国正与他们进行“武装冲突”，他所依据的法律权威与布什政府在9/11事件后使用的相同。

周四，当记者问特朗普是否会要求国会向贩毒集团宣战时，他表示没有这个计划。

“我认为我们应该杀了那些把毒品带入我们国家的人，好吗？我们要杀了他们，你知道吗？他们会死的，”特朗普在白宫与国土安全官员举行的圆桌会议上说。

两大政党的议员都对特朗普在未获得国会授权或未提供太多细节的情况下下令采取军事行动表示担忧。民主党人坚称，这些袭击违反了国际法。

“我以前从未见过这样的事情，”曾任职于五角大楼和国务院，并在阿富汗担任顾问的参议员安迪·金（Andy Kim，DN.J.）说道。

他说：“我们完全不知道这件事会发展到什么程度，也不知道它可能会引发什么后果，比如是否会派遣地面部队？事态会不会不断升级，让我们陷入长期的僵局？”

但长期参与西半球外交事务的佛罗里达州共和党众议员马里奥·迪亚兹-巴拉特对特朗普的做法表示：“早就该这样了。”

迪亚兹-巴拉特表示，虽然特朗普总统“显然憎恨战争”，但他也不害怕在有针对性的行动中使用美国军队。

“我可不想成为这些贩毒集团的一员，”他补充道。

美联社驻委内瑞拉加拉加斯记者 Regina Garcia Cano，以及驻华盛顿记者 Ben Finley 和 Lisa Mascaro 对本报道亦有贡献。