U.S. sabre rattling in the Caribbean

From Nat South – Livejournal

Sabre rattling

The U.S. is continuing the military build up in the Caribbean, while the Venezuela authorities are asserting their sovereignty and military readiness.  A 4th U.S. destroyer has transited the Panama Canal recently.

• 4500 troops and sailors
• dozen warships and auxiliary ships
• 10 F-35 aircraft
• MQ-9 Drones based in Puerto Rico
• Special forces, (boats and aircraft)
• One nuclear submarine

Visible result so far: Three or four alleged Venezuelan fast-boats have destroyed by U.S. forces.  Once more, no detailed evidence has been presented by the U.S. administration to confirm that they were drug running. As a I wrote previously, the U.S. is judge, jury and executioner combined, without detailed evidence.

Another boat was destroyed off the Dominican Republic with 3 reported killed just this week, (AP 22 Sept), 80 nm south of Beata Island, in which the Dominican authorities have apparently recovered 377 packages of cocaine from the boat, (take a look at the photo for how intact the bundles are). The Dominican Navy worked in conjunction with U.S. authorities to locate the speedboat. It was destroyed by an aircraft, not a missile drone strikes as with the boats off Venezuela.

The second point related to the U.S. Special Forces deployment. As I as noted in my previous article, the deployment of a nuclear submarine,  specialist aircraft for special operations, along with the deployment of a special forces ship, is somewhat an intriguing addition to the stated “counter narco-trafficking” operation. The military  group bears no relation to classic drug interdiction operations, but has the tell-tell signs of a preparation for special operations raids and potentially targeted missile strikes.

One example of this focus towards special forces operations is the ship, MV “Ocean Trader“, which is currently in the Caribbean. It is a cargo ro-ro ship leased by the U.S. military, but it isn’t any ordinary cargo ship though. It is operated by the Military Sealift Command,  has a very shadowy existence on AIS for years now, as it operates in support of U.S. Special Operations Command, (SOCOM).  It is essentially a floating forward operations base, more discreet than an amphibious landing ship, but with similar yet slightly smaller capability, of carrying onboard low-profile fast-boats, (such as the Combatant Craft Assault), RHIBs, vehicles, UAVs and support helicopter operations.  It can have 200 troops onboard and of course, it will have an array of comms and surveillance equipment onboard.

Its location in the Caribbean confirms what the NYT has recently stated.  Again, we are seeing a “drip-drip” feed of highly selected information released into the public domain, which ultimately should be considered as signals, for Caracas to take note.  The special forces element is not to be underestimated, given that the U.S. first Trump administration has previously on record:

• nurtured several failed attempts to overthrow Maduro, in particular the 2020 Op Gideon attempt where two former U.S. Green Berets were captured and jailed;
• ordered in 2019 a North Korean mission by U.S. Navy Seals team that ended up killing fishermen.

Feel the difference

1. A recent seizure of low-profile drug running boat off Galapagos.

2. A boat being destroyed in a missile off Venezuela. On September 15, 2025, the U.S. military struck a second boat suspected of carrying drugs from Venezuela, resulting in three being extra-judicially killed.

The boat according to President Donald Trump, was transporting “big bags of cocaine and fentanyl”. Incredulous to think that fentanyl was being carried onboard, when the vast majority is in fact produced in clandestine labs in Mexico as well as in the U.S. itself.  No one knows exactly who and what was onboard.  Within the Washington corridors of power, it is not difficult to reframe and create superficial evidence and wave it in front of MSM and legislators as proof.

At the same time, those same ‘dastardly’ “narco-terrorists” in the Eastern Pacific get nabbed in a conventional manner, by the usual U.S. Coastguard boarding teams. Now you, dear reader, can you feel and see the huge difference in tone and approach:

Helicopters with machine guns, RHIB boat crews’ pistols   V   remotely controlled drones with missiles.

The U.S., the country that gave the expression, “turkey shoot“,  is now using humans as targets, as well as it being extremely lopsided.  This is especially applicable given that the boat destroyed on 2 September was double-tapped to kill the survivors, (The Intercept, 10 Sept 2025). Talk about getting rid of the evidence hideously, maybe to cover up certain troubling specifics in this instance.

Record seizure of narcotics

While much ‘noise’ is being created in relation to U.S. military activity off Venezuela, discreetly in the background, the U.S. Coastguard continues to carry out its operations and has conducted multiple significant drug interdictions near the Galápagos Islands in 2025.

On June 26, Coast Guard aircrews spotted two speedboats approximately 185 km southeast of the Galápagos Islands and used helicopters to stop them, which led to the seizure of just over 3600kg of cocaine. This operation was part of a larger surge, codenamed “Operation Pacific Viper”. The total figure of drugs seized is worth nearly $500 million, from 19 interdictions across the Eastern Pacific and Caribbean between late June and mid-August.

3 events off the Galápagos Islands, Ecuador: 5 boats stopped and detained in 4 months.

The same operational logic could be easily applied to hotspots in the Caribbean region, but instead there are U.S. navy ships patrolling off the coast of Venezuela, in areas that are less attractive to drug running operations.  It is significant that the areas in which the U.S. Navy is present, is more connected to the presence of Venezuelan  military, such as La Orchila outpost, near to the oil and gas fields, or near to the important Dragon’s Mouth strait between Venezuela and Trinidad and Tobago, which connects the Caribbean to the Gulf of Paria. (See note*).

It is a trumpery of a rotten pretext to take out small boats with missiles, when it looks more like coercion against Caracas and putting into place elements underpinning a potential move to carry out some military strike or regime change.

Intensive use of military special forces capabilities to counter drug traffickers is unwarranted, as usually there are special police SWAT teams, coastguard and custom specialists on hand.

Fish or not to fish

The comments by both Trump and Vance are galling, with respect to fishing in the area. It actually hints at their callousness, knowing well that the strikes greatly affect fishing in the region, especially in those areas that are poor and rely on fishing as a livelihood.

Vance: On 17 September, 2025,  he stated he “wouldn’t go fishing right now in that area of the world“.

Trump: On  21 September, 2025, “There are no boats in the water anymore. You don’t even find a fishing boat, you don’t even find cruise liners anymore. There’s nothing in the water near Venezuela. It’s actually strange. You know what that means?

On 22 September, 2025: Trump advised  “In fact, I think water fishing, I think almost anything we have to get into a boat right now in that area would not be doing too well.”

Side note: Cruise ships?  They don’t tend to navigate in that area anyway, given that it is on the usual cruise circuit, further north and nearer to Mexico.  That reminds me of the incident with the polar cruise ship “RCGS Resolute” back in 2020, in which the Venezuelan navy lost a ship in the process of trying to stop it, precisely the Venezuelan authorities saw it as a suspected mothership for seaborne operations.

What needs to be stressed, time and again, these small boats could never make the journey all the way up the Caribbean to the U.S., so their threat and destruction is wildly exaggerated.  These are not dedicated long-distance low-profile drug running boats, as can seen in the video clip of the U.S. Coastguard operation.

Of course, there are those who supplement their fishing with contraband running,  drugs, fuel, migrants and wildlife, These are really small-scale ventures that bring “easy money”.  They aren’t at the higher levels of the drug-running entities, yet they are easy prey, both to drug smugglers and now the U.S. military.  Some may be Venezuelans, who come from impoverished areas, in dire need of money.  If the U.S. thought that they could be welcomed in those areas, if they attempted to carry out operations in the area, then they are somewhat mistaken.

To note that the first speedboat destroyed apparently carried 11 people, had four powerful outboards engines, which was deemed unusual for coastal fishing, which are typically slightly smaller panga skiffs.  Yet, there are plenty of them in region, but it certainly could not have reached U.S. waters. Certainly, none of the skiffs destroyed had the same profile of a drug-running low-profile vessel, (LPVs), often pictured in the Pacific, Caribbean and Atlantic.

Four powerful outboards are quite expensive to buy, run and maintain, so if this was the circumstantial evidence on which U.S. Special forces targeted it, it is still not a legal strike, The fact that it was doubled-tapped by a drone, makes it even worse, (The Intercept, September 2025).  In my experience, a boat with 11 people onboard is more likely to have been migrant smuggling than carrying large amounts of drugs.  These details make all the more horrific. The viciousness of the U.S. government labelling 11 civilians as members of “Tren de Aragua” in a implausible attempt to whitewash the whole events is utterly ghastly.

Venezuelan military exercises

A large-scale 3-day exercise, “Caribe Soberano 200” took place on La Orchila Island.  A large part of the navy and coastguard, (22 ships), and 12 aircraft were involved, as well as 2.500 troops, mostly marines. The Venezuelan authorities have also stepped up their PR, releasing videos of Su-30 aircraft with ordnance, such as an anti-ship missile and iron bombs.

The exercises include air defense deployments, armed drones, surveillance drones, and electronic warfare actions, which can be seen as a direct response to U.S.  sea and air military activity off the Venezuelan coast.

La Orchila is a small island located to the east of Los Roques archipelago, it is not just a remote island, but a military base. As such, it has a strategic value and has an airfield and an airspace surveillance radar.  Readers might remember when Russia deployed two Tupolev Tu-160 to the Caribbean back in December 2018.  The aircraft flew into Orchila, a place that has been the subject of international attention regarding potential Russian military deployments in past decades.

The laser focus by the U.S. military on the Venezuelan peñeros is indicatory, as it  just happens that the Venezuelan Navy operates 17m long Iranian-made Zolfaghar-class fast attack craft. These had been previously deployed in 2024 to the Gulf of Paria and the Orinoco Delta. They stationed at a small coast guard station at Punta Barima, when the U.K. in late December 2023, decided to send a Royal Navy vessel to Guyana.  U.S. SOCOM and intelligence entities are certainly keeping an eye on the whereabouts of those vessels, since they pack a powerful punch for their size.

They are designed for coastal defence and are equipped to carry anti-ship missiles such as the Kowsar, Nasr-1, or CM-90, with ranges extending up to 90 kilometres, along with machine guns and torpedoes, making them a significant threat. The export version of the CM-90 missile is in the Venezuelan weaponry inventory since 2024.

Regime change in the air

I am reminded of this: U.S. General Laura Richardson, who back in 2023 headed Southern Command, said that Latin America is “off-the-charts rich” when it comes to resources. “You have Venezuela’s resources as well, with oil, copper, gold.” (Atlantic Council interview, Jan 2023).

The script is still there and is still equally relevant to this day, it doesn’t matter whether it is a Democrat or Republican administration, although the later is more overtly ruthless.  The commitment to upend countries’ governments if they stray from the U.S. fold, just for the sake of U.S. corporate profits, especially if there are adversaries who are seen to be benefiting more, at the perceived expense of Washington.  As such, there is nothing quite like inciting geopolitical strife to cause trouble.  The U.S. military deployment in the Caribbean is just the latest iteration of the revamped Monroe Doctrine.

A dose of cynicism

With Chevron in Venezuela, largely due to the efforts of the U.S. Special Envoy, Richard Grenell, and with Exxon Mobil, in Guyana, (Mision Verdad April 2023), with the backing of Marco Rubio, it is reminiscent of a 21st century version of the run up to the Chaco War.  Back in the 1930s, Royal Dutch Shell backed Paraguay and Standard Oil, (now Exxon), supported Bolivia. Both companies pushed the two countries into a bloody war over potential oil reserves in the Chaco region, which resulted in around 100,000 lives lost.

Moves and events

It is obvious to say, every action has its counter reaction.

18 September: Venezuela has strengthened its relationship with Russia, as the National Assembly approved a law on strategic partnership with Russia. It lays out a framework for establishing political, economic and military ties. The U.S. confrontational stance has pushed Caracas closer to Moscow.  This move might play in Washington’s hand, by increasing by a notch, more hostility in Caracas’s direction.

Summary

The hardliners within the Trump administration promised more military strikes back at the beginning of September and indeed this is the case.  At the same time there has been military exercises and more U.S. posturing.

The operational anti-drug procedures between the Pacific and Caribbean is flagrantly different and clearly indicates a completely different doctrinal attitude,  more in keeping with waging war rather than law enforcement operations. It shows disproportionate approaches being selectively taken to tackle drug smuggling,  bordering on a military campaign in parts of the Caribbean.

It raises a lot load of questions, such as, how far will the Trump administration go with their military might in tackling this kind of serious crime? What other region will be targeted by drone strikes? The U.S. administration is carrying extra-judicial killings, and although there are legislators and human right organisations who are decrying these actions, a bloody precedent has been set in the Western Hemisphere.

Since the U.S. have set up a military operation theatre, right off Venezuela, the possibility of using this as a cover for a potential U.S. military/ leverage for a regime change, has not diminished.

(*) The Zolfaghar-class fast attack craft were deployed in 2024 to the Gulf of Paria and the Orinoco Delta.