Venezuelan President Maduro says the US is 'faking war' by deploying giant warships

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has accused the United States of “manufacturing war” after the country dramatically escalated its military buildup in the region and sent the world's largest warship to the Caribbean.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Friday ordered the aircraft carrier Gerald R. Ford, which can carry up to 90 aircraft, out of the Mediterranean Sea.

“They are inventing a new forever war,” President Maduro told state media. “They promised never to get involved in another war, and yet they're making one up.”

The United States has increased its military presence in the Caribbean, sending warships, nuclear submarines and F-35 aircraft in what it calls an operation targeting drug traffickers.

It also carried out 10 airstrikes on boats it said belonged to traffickers, including one on Friday in which Hegseth said “six male narco-terrorists” were killed.

The operation took place in the Caribbean against a ship that Hegseth claimed belonged to the criminal organization Torren de Aragua.

The strike has drawn local condemnation, with experts questioning its legality.

Although the Trump administration claims to be fighting drug trafficking, it has been accused by both experts and lawmakers of launching an intimidation campaign aimed at destabilizing Maduro's government.

Maduro is a longtime enemy of Trump, and the US president has accused him of being the leader of a drug lord, a charge Trump denies.

Dr Christopher Sabatini, senior fellow for Latin America at the Chatham House think tank, told the BBC: “This is about regime change. They're probably not going to invade. I hope this is about signaling.”

He claimed that the military buildup was aimed at “striking fear” in the hearts of Venezuela's military and Maduro's inner circle, turning them against him.

In an announcement Friday, the Pentagon said the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford will be deployed to the U.S. Southern Command area of ​​responsibility, including Central America, South America and the Caribbean.

Spokesman Sean Parnell said the additional forces would “strengthen and augment existing capabilities to disrupt drug trafficking and degrade and dismantle TCOs (transnational criminal organizations).”

Deploying an aircraft carrier would provide resources to launch attacks against ground targets. President Trump has repeatedly raised the possibility of what he calls “ground action” in Venezuela.

“The oceans are pretty well managed, so we're certainly looking to land now,” he said earlier this week.

This comes after CNN reported that President Trump is considering targeting cocaine facilities and drug trafficking routes in Venezuela, but has not yet made a final decision.

The aircraft carrier last publicly announced its location three days ago off the coast of Croatia in the Adriatic Sea.

Its deployment marks a significant expansion of the U.S. military buildup in the region. It could also increase tensions with Venezuela, which the U.S. government has long accused of harboring drug traffickers.

The carrier's large aircraft payload may include jets and planes for transport and reconnaissance. The first long-term deployment was in 2023.

It is unclear which ships will accompany it as it moves into the region, but it is likely that it will act as part of a strike group that could include destroyers carrying missiles and other equipment.

The United States has carried out a series of attacks on ships in recent weeks, which President Donald Trump has described as an effort to curb drug trafficking.

The airstrikes announced Friday are the 10th carried out by the Trump administration against suspected drug traffickers since early September. Most of the attacks were in the Caribbean Sea off the coast of South America, but on 21 and 22 October they also carried out attacks in the Pacific Ocean.

Both Democratic and Republican members of Congress have expressed concerns about the legality of the strike and the president's authority to order it.

On September 10, 25 Democratic U.S. senators sent a letter to the White House claiming that the government had rammed a ship days earlier “without any evidence that the individuals on board or the ship's cargo posed a threat to the United States.”

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Kentucky, argued that such a strike would require Congressional authorization.

President Trump has said he has the legal authority to order airstrikes and has designated Torren de Aragua a terrorist organization.

“We're allowed to do that, and if we do it by land, we could go back to Congress,” Trump told reporters at the White House on Wednesday.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio added, “If people want to stop seeing drug ships being blown up, they should stop shipping drugs into the United States.”

The six deaths from the operation Hegseth announced Friday bring the total number of people killed in U.S. airstrikes to at least 43.

Brian Finucane, a former US State Department lawyer, told the BBC that the situation amounted to a constitutional crisis and that the Republican-controlled US Congress appeared unwilling to challenge Mr Trump.

“The United States is experiencing an Article I crisis,” said Finucane, who now works for the International Crisis Group. “The United States Congress has primary control over the use of military force. In this case, that control has been taken away by the White House, so it's up to Congress to resist.”