US Kills Three In Fresh Strike As Its Largest Warship Enters Caribbean Amid Venezuela Tensions

Last Updated:November 17, 2025, 02:55 IST

The US ramps up military action in Latin America, striking drug vessels, deploying USS Gerald R. Ford, and resuming jungle training in Panama.

The USS Gerald R. Ford, the world’s largest aircraft carrier, entered an area under control of the US Naval Forces Southern Command, which encompasses Latin America and the Caribbean. (IMAGE: AFP)

The United States has sharply escalated its military posture in Latin America, carrying out another lethal strike on a suspected narcotics-smuggling vessel even as its most advanced aircraft carrier entered the Caribbean Sea in a major show of force.

In a statement released Sunday, the Pentagon said that on November 15, Joint Task Force Southern Spear conducted a “lethal kinetic strike” on a vessel run by a designated terrorist organisation. The strike, ordered by Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, targeted a boat travelling along a known narco-trafficking route in the Eastern Pacific. Three men described as “narco-terrorists” were killed. The US said intelligence confirmed the vessel was carrying narcotics and operating in international waters.

This was possibly the 21st such American strike on suspected smuggling boats since September. At least 83 people have been killed in these operations across the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific as the Trump administration intensifies what it says is a campaign against drug-trafficking networks.

The escalation coincides with the arrival of the USS Gerald R. Ford — the US Navy’s most advanced aircraft carrier — in the Caribbean on Sunday, marking the largest American military buildup in the region in generations.

The Ford and its accompanying carrier strike group transited the Anegada Passage near the British Virgin Islands and will join nearly a dozen Navy vessels and around 12,000 sailors and Marines already deployed under “Operation Southern Spear.”

Rear Adm. Paul Lanzilotta, who commands the carrier group, said its presence would “protect our nation’s security and prosperity against narco-terrorism in the Western Hemisphere,” adding that the deployment expands an already significant US naval footprint offshore.

Venezuela, however, views the buildup as a pressure tactic directed at President Nicolás Maduro. The US insists the operations are strictly counter-narcotics, but the scale of the deployment, combined with repeated lethal strikes, has raised questions about Washington’s broader intentions in South America.

Separately, Army Secretary Dan Driscoll said on Sunday that US troops have restarted jungle warfare training in Panama, signalling yet another expansion of American military activity in the region. “We’re reactivating our jungle school,” he told CBS, adding that forces would be ready to act on whatever orders President Trump and Secretary Hegseth issued.

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Shankhyaneel Sarkar

Shankhyaneel Sarkar is a Chief Sub-Editor at News18. He covers international affairs, where he focuses on breaking news to in-depth analyses. He has over seven years of experience during which he has covered se…Read More

Shankhyaneel Sarkar is a Chief Sub-Editor at News18. He covers international affairs, where he focuses on breaking news to in-depth analyses. He has over seven years of experience during which he has covered se…

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