Three US Navy destroyers will arrive off Venezuela within 36 hours as part of President Donald Trump’s push to target Latin American drug cartels, officials said.
The deployment, involving around 4,000 sailors and Marines along with spy planes, warships and a submarine, will run for several months in international waters and airspace. The ships will conduct surveillance and could support strikes if ordered, according to Reuters.
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro pledged to defend the country’s territory, calling the US a “declining empire.
Trump has made fighting cartels central to his border and immigration strategy, recently designating groups like Mexico’s Sinaloa Cartel and Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua as global terrorist organizations, Reuters reported.
