On Sunday, the American destroyer USS Gravely arrived in Port-of-Spain, the capital of the eastern state of Trinidad and Tobago, located just a few nautical miles from Venezuela’s coastline. The call occurs at a time when the situation between the USA and Venezuela is highly tense.
“Venezuela condemns the military provocation, which is designed to provoke a war in the Caribbean,” a spokesman for the Venezuelan government said on Sunday.
The USA has assembled large naval forces in the Caribbean, forces whose scale and composition far exceed what is necessary to intervene against drug smuggling.
Most recently, the USA decided to send the navy’s largest aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R. Ford, which has 90 planes and helicopters on board, to the Caribbean.
According to Republican senator Lindsey Graham, there are signs that the USA is planning to carry out airstrikes against targets in Venezuela, whose president – Nicolas Maduro – is accused by Donald Trump of being a drug gangster. Without Trump, however, having presented evidence for the claim.
Since September 2nd, American forces have attacked at least 10 ships that were allegedly engaged in smuggling drugs to the USA. 43 people have been killed in the attacks, which occurred without prior warning.
Besides Venezuela, Donald Trump also accuses Colombia of providing support to the drug cartels. A possible American airstrike could therefore also be directed against targets in Colombia.
-mauh
