Venezuela is focus of anti-drug effort

MIAMI — President Donald Trump announced Wednesday that Navy ships are being moved toward Venezuela as his administration beefs up counternarcotics operations in the Caribbean after 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 deployment is one of the largest U.S. military operations in the region since the 1989 invasion of Panama to remove Gen. Manuel Noriega from power and bring him to the U.S. to face drug charges. It involves assets including Navy warships, U.S. surveillance aircraft and on-ground special forces seldom seen before in the region.

The goal is to nearly double the U.S. counternarcotics capacity in the Western Hemisphere, with forces operating both in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific. Esper said the mission would be supported by 22 partner nations.

“As governments and nations focus on the coronavirus, there is a growing threat that cartels, criminals, terrorists and other malign actors will try to exploit the situation for their own gain,” Trump said. “We must not let that happen.”

The enhanced mission has been months in the making but has taken on greater urgency after 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.