Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered the Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group and its accompanying aircraft to the waters around Central and South America, a move that would likely add some 5,000 troops to the region and significant firepower designed to ratchet up pressure against the Venezuelan government.

Deployment of a carrier group marks a major escalation of U.S. forces in a region that has already seen an unusually large military buildup.

The deployment marks a major escalation in what the US says is a campaign against drug traffickers, which Trump warns will include "land action".

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has tasked aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN-78) and its escorts to U.S. Southern Command to support the Trump administration’s ongoing counter-drug efforts, a Pentagon spokesman said Friday on social media.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. military is sending an aircraft carrier to the waters off South America, the Pentagon announced Friday, in the latest escalation of military firepower in a region where the Trump administration has unleashed more rapid strikes in recent days against boats it accuses of carrying drugs.

The Pentagon has ordered aircraft carrier USS Gerald R Ford and its air wing to Latin America as part of a large build-up of military forces in the southern Caribbean Sea.