What’s behind Trump’s power play in the Caribbean?

Not since 1989 and its invasion of Panama has the United States so ostentatiously wielded its “big stick” in the Caribbean.

In recent months Washington has amassed a fleet led by the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R Ford – billed by its navy as the world’s most lethal combat platform – in the sea that has been nicknamed “America’s Lake” because of US dominance over it.

Along with 15,000 troops the flotilla has been deployed to target drug cartels as part of Operation Southern Spear.

Since US president Donald Trump declared his country to be in a “non-international armed conflict” with traffickers, the US has carried out at least 21 strikes on boats in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific that its officials allege were smuggling drugs, in a campaign that has embroiled US defence secretary Pete Hegseth in accusations of possible war crimes.

The ultimate target of this supposed policing operation is Venezuela’s dictator Nicolás Maduro, for years the principal antagonist of the US in the western hemisphere. After several previous failed attempts to eject the Chavista socialist from power, Washington once again has the former bus driver in its crosshairs.

Last month, it designated the Cartel de los Soles a foreign terrorist organisation identifying Maduro as the group’s leader.

Named after the sun-shaped insignia worn by Venezuelan military officials, the Cartel of the Suns refers to the various networks within the country’s security and military apparatus involved in drug trafficking.

Many observers contest the US claim the groups constitute a properly structured cartel or are headed by Maduro rather than just operate with his connivance. But the designation has ratcheted up the pressure on the Venezuelan regime which has been deeply implicated in criminality.

The USS Gerald R Ford in the Strait of Gibraltar before arriving in the Caribbean.