Trump’s biggest warship arrives in Caribbean Sea as fears of war with Venezuela loom despite Maduro’s peace plea
DONALD Trump’s most advanced and most powerful aircraft carrier – the USS Gerald R. Ford – has thundered into the Caribbean Sea on Sunday.
The American steel giant is now cutting through turquoise waters as fears of a showdown with Venezuela sharpen.
The Ford’s arrival caps the largest U.S. military buildup in the region in generations and lands just as Nicolás Maduro makes a surreal, last-ditch peace plea by belting out John Lennon’s Imagine.
Washington insists the deployment is about drugs, but few in the region believe that anymore.
The Pentagon confirmed the Ford transited the Anegada Passage near the British Virgin Islands.
The move rounds off a flotilla of nearly a dozen Navy ships and roughly 12,000 troops under Operation Southern Spear – the Trump administration’s sweeping campaign against what it calls “narco-terrorists” in the Western Hemisphere.
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Complete with fighter squadrons and guided-missile destroyers, Rear Adm. Paul Lanzilotta said the Ford’s strike group will reinforce the growing armada to “protect our nation’s security and prosperity against narco-terrorism in the Western Hemisphere.”
Since early September, US forces have launched at least 20 attacks on suspected drug-running boats across the Caribbean and eastern Pacific, killing more than 80 people.
Trump has said the US is in “armed conflict” with drug cartels and warned operations would expand beyond the sea to “stop the drugs coming in by land.”
While the carrier group advanced, tyrant Maduro took to a stage in Caracas and broke into an off-key performance of Imagine in what looked like a desperate serenade to avert a confrontation.
“Do everything for peace. As John Lennon used to say right?” he told supporters before launching into the cringe-worthy rendition.
Afterward, he gushed: “What a beautiful song. Younger people should look up the lyrics; it’s an inspiration for all time.
“It’s an anthem for all eras and generations, a gift from John Lennon to humanity. Long live the eternal memory of that great poet and musician.”
Waving peace signs and slipping into karaoke-style lip sync with a backing track, the autocrat tried to frame himself as a pacifist figure under siege.
This from a man facing US narcoterrorism charges and a $50 million bounty.
His plea came days after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth unveiled Southern Spear and vowed it would target “narco-terrorists” operating across the region.
Maduro blasted Trump’s “irresponsible” military drills in Trinidad and Tobago and accused the president of pursuing a “criminal war.”
US officials say the operation aims to dismantle cartel-militia networks that help keep Maduro in power.
CBS News reported that senior military leaders have presented Trump with updated options for potential operations inside Venezuela, including land strikes.
No green light yet — but planning is “real, active and accelerating.”
Outside the briefing rooms, the might is unmistakable.
The Ford – 100,000 tons of American steel – now sits in US Southern Command’s area of responsibility, alongside destroyers, warplanes, special operations teams and forward-positioned F-35s.
America has already hit at least 21 suspected trafficking vessels in two months.
Two survivors were repatriated, and one was released for lack of evidence.
Critics, including U.N. officials and some Republicans, are demanding proof that those killed were truly “narcoterrorists.”
Still, Senate Republicans recently blocked a measure that would have restricted Trump’s ability to launch an attack on Venezuela without congressional approval.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio says the US does not recognize Maduro as Venezuela’s legitimate leader, calling his government a “transshipment organisation” that openly collaborates with traffickers.
Sen. Lindsey Graham added that Maduro’s days are “numbered.”
Writing on X, he said he agrees with Trump’s view of the dictator: “I do not consider Maduro a legitimate leader but rather, a drug trafficker who has been indicted in US courts.”
Meanwhile, Venezuela is scrambling.
The regime has mobilised 200,000 troops in its biggest drill in years as US ships edge closer.
Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino accused Washington of carrying out “extrajudicial killings at sea,” saying: “They are murdering defenseless people… executing them without due process.”
He warned any US assault would meet a “community united to defend this nation, to the death.”
Colombia’s left-wing president Gustavo Petro has halted intelligence sharing with America, calling the boat strikes illegal and dangerous.
And inside Venezuela, anxieties are rising.
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Elizabeth Dickinson of the International Crisis Group said: “This is the anchor of what it means to have US military power once again in Latin America.
“And it has raised a lot of anxieties in Venezuela but also throughout the region. I think everyone is watching this with sort of bated breath to see just how willing the US is to really use military force.”