If you were picturing sunning on white sand and languid blue seas in the Caribbean, forget it. Lately, it has been a high-wire act of military saber-rattling. The U.S. Navy sent a squadron of guided-missile destroyers, such as the USS Jason Dunham, as part of an effort to choke off Latin American drug smuggling. But this is not just the pursuit of speedboats—this is a show of power, more than 4,500 sailors and marines aboard, with gadgets that can nearly rival a high-budget spy film.
The tensions ran high when two Venezuelan F-16s made a fly-by over the USS Jason Dunham in international waters. Pentagon officials labeled the action as “highly provocative” and intended to interfere with U.S. counter-narcotics missions. The U.S. threatened the government of Venezuela, clearly stating that interference would not be tolerated.
The U.S. did more than just threaten. Ten F-35 fighter aircraft were deployed to Puerto Rico to augment the counternarcotics mission, with the point clearly made that the U.S. would respond decisively. The rapid deployment was driven by a U.S. military attack on a Venezuelan vessel that allegedly was carrying narcotics and is associated with the Tren de Aragua cartel.
President Trump declared that the attack resulted in eleven deaths on the ship, and nothing was said about whether there was an opportunity to surrender. Lawyers have already attacked the action on the basis of potential issues with extrajudicial use of force.
On the Venezuelan side, President Nicolás Maduro called out the National Militia, activating communal units across the country, employing drones, and sending warships to close the coast. He referred to this as the first national mobilization of communal defense units from north to south and east to west. At the same time, he prohibited drones from Venezuelan airspace on safety and security grounds, particularly following the 2018 drone explosion around him.
The political struggle is also being intensified as the war is being fought on the battlefield. The U.S. increased the bounty for the arrest of Maduro to $50 million, with him being charged with heading one of the world’s largest drug trafficking organizations.
Maduro and his inner circle were charged by the Justice Department, and the White House regards the Tren de Aragua gang as a terrorist organization. The allegations were minimized by the Foreign Minister of Venezuela, Yvan Gil, as proof of Washington’s “failed policy and lack of credibility in the region.”
Legal outrage also trails the U.S. attack. Suspected narcobarges are, in routine procedure, boarded by the Coast Guard, not bombed out of the air, critics argue. There was no apparent immediate threat or indication that those on board were armed carriers of guns.
Members of Congress, such as Rep. Ilhan Om, have also referred to the attack as “lawless,” though Congress has never issued a war declaration on Venezuela or the gang. A terror designation as a terrorist organization does not provide for unlimited military force authority.
All this in the midst of Venezuela’s political crisis. Whatever the pressure from the international community and election fraud claims pile up, Maduro refuses to let go. America has attempted sanctions and diplomacy, but Maduro is turning tensions into an internal rallying point and portraying the U.S. as the antagonist. He went so far as to sign a letter to the United Nations, calling upon the international community to denounce the American action as provocation.
Under the peaceful facade of the Caribbean lies a warship chessboard, fighter aircraft, and politics. The world waits breathlessly to know who got there first and whether the battle would be the next installment in ongoing U.S.-Venezuela tensions, or the opening salvo at something bigger.