The USS Nimitz aircraft carrier during a naval exercise in the Persian Gulf in 2005. Photo: U.S. National Archives.
Guacamaya, August 14, 2025. The U.S. government has ordered the deployment of naval and air forces to the southern Caribbean Sea to take action against Latin American drug cartels, according to a Reuters article citing two sources.
Recently, President Donald Trump directed the Pentagon to prepare options for operations against Latin American drug cartels designated as global terrorist organizations.
This would be the second such deployment since June 2020, when the U.S. sent four aircraft and their crews to Curaçao for anti-narcotics operations in the same region, in coordination with the Kingdom of the Netherlands.
The designated organizations include multiple Mexican cartels, such as the Sinaloa Cartel and Jalisco New Generation, as well as the Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13). However, the designations most relevant to this deployment are those linked to Venezuela: the Tren de Aragua and the alleged Cártel de los Soles. The Trump administration has accused both of being under the direction of Maduro and his government’s leadership.
The accusation against the Tren de Aragua, made in February—though denied by the U.S. intelligence community—served as a pretext to activate the 1798 Alien Enemies Act. This law is being used to detain and deport Venezuelans without due process.
The designation of the Cártel de los Soles coincides with the U.S. government increasing its reward for information leading to the arrest of Nicolás Maduro to $50 million. Paradoxically, this announcement came shortly after the latest round of negotiations between Washington and Caracas, which resulted in a prisoner exchange and a new license for Chevron.
