The Trump administration is accumulating a massive U.S. military presence in the Caribbean, deploying warships, surveillance planes and fighter aircraft.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The buildup comes as it continues to blow up<\/strong> alleged drug-trafficking boats in the waters around South America. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The main target for the flurry of activity appears to be Venezuelan President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro, whom the administration has called an \u201cillegitimate leader.\u201d The country\u2019s attorney general said over the weekend there is \u201cno doubt\u201d<\/strong> that Trump wants to topple Maduro\u2019s regime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On Friday, the Defense Department (DOD) ordered<\/u><\/a> the USS Gerald R. Ford and its escort ships to head to the U.S. Southern Command (Southcom) area of responsibility, significantly expanding the U.S. military presence<\/strong>, which\u2002<\/u><\/a>already counts around<\/u><\/a> 10,000 U.S. forces supporting counternarcotics operations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cSo I think that\u2019s another example of the president trying to scare the pants off of Nicol\u00e1s Maduro<\/strong> and his top generals in order to hopefully create \u2026 some sort of breaks within the regime, which might lead to a change that might be more favorable to an opening with the opposition,\u201d said Christopher Hernandez-Roy, the deputy director and senior fellow of Americas Program at Center for Strategic and International Studies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He called the B-52 bombers that flew for hours off the Venezuelan coast action meant \u201cto intimidate\u201d<\/strong> the country and its military. He said the U.S. \u201cseems to be telegraphing some sort of imminent kinetic action inside Venezuela.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Trump and his close allies have raised the prospects<\/strong> of the U.S. conducting land strikes in Venezuela as the White House has ramped up pressure against Maduro, accusing him of being the leader of Tren de Aragua, a transnational criminal gang designated as a foreign terrorist organization by the U.S. government, that traces its roots to Venezuela. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Over the weekend, Trump signaled land strikes could come soon<\/strong>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe\u2019re going to see with Venezuela. I can tell you one thing. We stopped all drugs from coming in by sea. I will stop all drugs from coming in by land very shortly<\/strong>. You\u2019ll see that starting. They\u2019re not going to want to do it. You\u2019re going to see drugs stopping into our country,\u201d the president told reporters Saturday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Maduro accused the administration on Friday of \u201cfabricating\u201d a war<\/strong> against him after the Pentagon ordered USS Gerald R. Ford, the world\u2019s largest aircraft carrier with over 4,500 sailors, to sail to SouthComm after being docked in the Adriatic Sea. It carries a squadron of F\/A-18 Super Hornets and helicopter squadrons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n