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Trump: US to Deploy Anti-drug Navy Ships Near Venezuela

Associated Press

   MIAMI - President Donald Trump announced Wednesday that Navy ships were
   being moved toward Venezuela as his administration beefs up
   counternarcotics operations in the Caribbean following a U.S. drug
   indictment against Nicolas Maduro.

   "The Venezuelan people continue to suffer tremendously due to Maduro
   and his criminal control over the country, and drug traffickers are
   seizing on this lawlessness," Defense Secretary Mark Esper said after
   the president's announcement.

   The mission involves sending additional Navy warships, surveillance
   aircraft and special forces teams to nearly double the U.S.
   counternarcotics capacity in the Western Hemisphere, with forces
   operating both in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific. Esper said 22
   partner nations would support the mission.

   As nations around the world focus on the COVID-19 pandemic, "there is a
   growing threat that cartels, criminals, terrorists and other malign
   actors will try to exploit the situation for their own gain," said
   Trump. "We must not let that happen."

   The enhanced mission has been months in the making but has taken on
   greater urgency following last week's indictment of Maduro, Venezuela's
   embattled socialist leader, and members of his inner circle and
   military. They are accused of leading a narcoterrorist conspiracy
   responsible for smuggling up to 250 metric tons of cocaine a year into
   the U.S., about half of it by sea.

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