#venezuela-tensions

#venezuela-tensions

From the 1940s until the 2000s, 2,000 tons of ammunition fell every year on Vieques, a small island in the Puerto Rican archipelago. The U.S. Navy transformed this Caribbean paradise of crystal-clear waters into the most realistic recreation possible of a war zone: after expelling thousands of residents and taking control of two-thirds of the island and its resources, the navy established there a training base and a firing range to conduct artillery tests and other military exercises

It is an intelligence relationship that predates even the Five Eyes: the UKUSA alliance that began, naturally enough, in secret in 1946. But this week the strain of trying to be the closest security ally to a freewheeling White House has begun to show. Britain, it emerged, had quietly suspended intelligence cooperation with the US in the Caribbean because London does not consider the deadly US military campaign against ships accused of drug trafficking to be in line with international law.

The threat of war against Venezuela and the surrounding region is growing as the Pentagon deploys the world's largest aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald Ford, to the Caribbean. Alejandro Velasco, associate professor at New York University, says the Latin American policy is "primarily Marco Rubio's ideological project," motivated by a desire to oust the government of Venezuela and weaken the allied government of Cuba.

President Donald Trump has announced that the United States military conducted a kinetic strike on a small boat he accused of smuggling drugs out of Venezuela for the Tren de Aragua gang. In a Tuesday post on his social media platform, Truth Social, Trump shared black-and-white aerial footage of the bombing, which reportedly killed 11 people. list of 3 itemslist 1 of 3list 2 of 3list 3 of 3end of list The strike resulted in 11 terrorists killed in action.