The U.S. is carrying out its largest military build-up in the Caribbean for decades, with about 10,000 troops deployed to the region as the Trump administration increases pressure on Venezuela.
The government of oil-rich Venezuela has raised fears of an attack, but the U.S. forces in the region are not enough for a full-scale invasion, experts said. Rather, they appear to be aimed at both tackling drug smuggling – the Trump administration’s stated purpose – and pressuring Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro out of power, according to former defence officials, military analysts and regional experts.
Since early September, the U.S. has struck at least seven speedboats that it said were trafficking drugs north in the Caribbean, killing a total of 32 people, the FT said.
