作为川普政府的一部分，杰拉尔德·福特·航母打击群号航空母舰已经抵达加勒比海以北的美国南方司令部行动区打击贩毒集团的运动，海军第四舰队周二宣布。
这艘航空母舰的部署是为了协助打击拉丁美洲的贩毒集团是10月24日在克罗地亚的一个停靠港宣布的。从那时起，它就开始了漫长的穿越这地中海和横跨大西洋。
通常情况下，五角大楼宣布一个航空母舰群已经进入一个区域作战区域时，他们已经越过了该区域的最远界限，对南方司令部来说意味着佛罗里达和古巴东部大西洋的某个地方。
该打击群包括三艘驱逐舰，将增强已经在南方司令部地区的八艘海军水面舰艇。美国在该地区的大规模军事存在还包括一艘潜艇、一架侦察机、10架F-35战斗机和“收割者”无人机。
上周通过图像披露，一架AC-130J武装直升机和另外两架侦察机一直在萨尔瓦多国际机场的一个军事基地活动，可能是打击卡特尔行动的一部分。
福特载有60多架飞机，可用于打击贩毒集团。
五角大楼首席发言人肖恩·帕内尔(Sean Parnell)表示:“这些部队将增强和扩大现有能力，以打击毒品贩运，瓦解和摧毁跨国犯罪组织。”。
特朗普政府表示，自9月开始行动以来，已在加勒比海和东太平洋对涉嫌贩毒的船只进行的19次袭击中造成76人死亡。
福特突击队中的4000名水手和海军陆战队员加入了已经部署在加勒比海的10000人的部队。
五角大楼表示，该航母的部署与针对毒品卡特尔的行动有关，但批评人士问，这是否是为了展示武力或针对委内瑞拉尼古拉斯·马杜罗政权的潜在行动。
专家说，虽然马杜罗是毒品交易的同谋，但进入美国的许多毒品都是通过墨西哥和太平洋的海上航线，而不是加勒比海，因为加勒比海以向欧洲运送毒品而闻名。
美国政府在委内瑞拉海岸附近部署了B-52轰炸机，在加勒比海上空部署了B-1轰炸机，这似乎是唐纳德·特朗普总统的一次重大武力展示。
此外，一名美国官员说，一支特种作战航空部队10月份在委内瑞拉附近的国际水域进行了训练演习。
Aircraft carrier strike group joins campaign against drug cartels
The USS Gerald R. Ford carrier strike group has arrived in the U.S. Southern Command area of operations north of the Caribbean Sea as part of the Trump administration’scampaign against drug cartels, the Navy’s Fourth Fleet announced Tuesday.
The carrier’s deployment to assist in operations against Latin American drug cartelswas announced on Oct. 24 while it was on a port of call in Croatia.Since then it has made the lengthy transit throughtheMediterranean Sea and across the Atlantic Ocean.
Typically the Pentagon’s announcements that a carrier group has entered a regional area of operations occur when they have crossed the furthest limits of that area,which for SOUTHCOM means somewhere in the Atlantic east of Florida and Cuba.
The strike group includes three destroyers that will augment the eight Navy surface ships already in the SOUTHCOM region.The sizable U.S. military presence in the region also includesa submarine, reconnaissance aircraft, 10 F-35 fighters and Reaper drones.
It was disclosed last week through imagery that an AC-130J gunship and two other reconnaissance aircraft have been operating from an El Salvador military base co-located at the country's international airport,presumably as part of operations against the cartels.
The Ford carries more than 60 aircraft that could be used against the drug cartels.
"These forces will enhance and augment existing capabilities to disrupt narcotics trafficking and degrade and dismantle Transnational Criminal Organizations," Sean Parnell, the Pentagon's chief spokesman, said.
The Trump administration says it has killed 76 people in 19 strikes against alleged drug-running boats in the Caribbean and the eastern Pacific Ocean since it began its campaign in September.
The 4,000 sailors and Marines aboard ships in the Ford strike group join the 10,000 troops already deployed to the Caribbean.
The Pentagon has said that the carrier’s deployment is tied to the operations targeting the drug cartels, but critics have asked if it is intended to be a show of force or potential operations targeting Venezuela's Nicolás Maduro regime.
Experts say that while Maduro is complicit in the drug trade, many of the drugs coming into the U.S. come via Mexico and sea routes in the Pacific, not the Caribbean, which is known more for shipping drugs to Europe.
The administration has flown B-52 bombers near the coast of Venezuela and B-1 bombers over the Caribbean in what appears to be a major show of force by President Donald Trump.
In addition, a special operations aviation unit conducted training exercises in international waters near Venezuela in October, a U.S. official said.
