Venezuela Vows to Defend Sovereignty as US Sends Its Largest Warship to Latin America

By Staff, Agencies

The United States has announced plans to deploy the USS Gerald R. Ford — the world’s largest aircraft carrier — along with five destroyers to Latin American waters, in a move Venezuela has denounced as a reckless provocation and a dangerous violation of sovereignty.

The Pentagon confirmed the deployment on Friday, describing the operation as an effort to “detect, monitor and disrupt illicit actors and activities.” However, the scale and nature of the naval buildup — the largest in the region in decades — have sparked fears of a broader campaign aimed at destabilizing or even invading Venezuela under fabricated pretexts.

Regional analysts and international observers have noted that the deployment far exceeds what is typically required for counter-narcotics operations. The Gerald Ford strike group will join around 6,000 US sailors and Marines already stationed on eight warships in the area, raising the total number of American military personnel in the region to over 10,000.

The escalation follows President Donald Trump’s recent admission that he had authorized CIA operations inside Venezuela and was “mulling land attacks.” Trump has repeatedly accused President Nicolás Maduro’s government of ties to drug trafficking and migration “invasions” into the United States — claims that international agencies and even US intelligence have dismissed as baseless.

Since September, Washington has carried out multiple strikes on civilian and fishing vessels in the Caribbean, alleging drug links without providing evidence. According to United Nations officials and international law experts, these attacks constitute clear violations of both US and international law and amount to extrajudicial killings.

Venezuela’s leadership has vowed to respond firmly to what it views as an imminent act of aggression. “Interpret it however you want: the Armed Forces will not allow a government here that is subservient to the interests of the United States,” declared Foreign Minister Vladimir Padrino.

Calling the deployment “the most significant military threat in the last 100 years,” Padrino reaffirmed Caracas’s commitment to peace but warned that Venezuela would defend its sovereignty with full determination against any foreign incursion.