The top US military commander for Latin America on Friday said that US President Donald Trump’s administration is not looking to use military force to remove Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, even as it expands drug interdiction operations in the Caribbean.
US Navy Admiral Craig Faller, commander of US Southern Command, said in an interview that a decision to double anti-narcotics assets in Latin America was months in the making and not directly tied to Maduro’s indictment in New York on charges of leading a narco-terrorist conspiracy that sent 250 tonnes of cocaine per year to the US.
Economic and diplomatic pressure — not the use of military force — remain the US’ preferred tools for removing Maduro from power, Faller said.
“This is not a shift in US government policy,” said Faller, who nonetheless celebrated that enhanced interdiction efforts would hurt Maduro’s finances and staying power. “It’s not an indication of some sort of new militarization in the Caribbean.”
The deployment announced earlier this month is one of the largest US military operations in the region since the 1989 invasion of Panama to remove Panamanian general Manuel Noriega from power and take him to the US to face drug charges. It involves assets like navy warships, airborne warning and control system aircraft and on-the-ground special forces seldom seen before in the region.
The COVID-19 pandemic did force some in the Pentagon to rethink the timing of the deployment out of concern for the safety of service members, Faller said.
While controls to protect the workforce have been enhanced, it was determined that over the long term, the US is positioned to take advantage of the disruption in narcotics supply chains caused by the novel coronavirus as drug cartels scramble to source precursor chemical and other inputs, he said.
“We thrive in uncertainty, and are going to try and capitalize on that,” Faller said.
He cited two “quick wins” since the start of the deployment — a 1.7-tonne seizure in the Pacific Ocean near Costa Rica last week and a 2.1-tonne interdiction a few days ago.
Growing instability in Venezuela is leading to an “uptick” in piracy in the Caribbean, Faller said, but he did not cite any statistics or evidence to back the assertion.
The sinking of a Venezuelan naval ship after it allegedly rammed an Antarctic-hardened cruise ship without passengers near Curacao was indicative of the readiness of Maduro’s armed forces, he said.
“It was a bad day for them,” Faller said. “Their lack of seamanship and lack of integrity is indicative of how it all played out.”
REBUILDING: A researcher said that it might seem counterintuitive to start talking about reconstruction amid the war with Russia, but it is ‘actually an urgent priority’ Italy is hosting the fourth annual conference on rebuilding Ukraine even as Russia escalates its war, inviting political and business leaders to Rome to promote public-private partnerships on defense, mining, energy and other projects as uncertainty grows about the US’ commitment to Kyiv’s defense. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy were opening the meeting yesterday, which gets under way as Russia accelerated its aerial and ground attacks against Ukraine with another night of pounding missile and drone attacks on Kyiv. Italian organizers said that 100 official delegations were attending, as were 40 international organizations and development banks. There are
TARIFF ACTION: The US embassy said that the ‘political persecution’ against former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro disrespects the democratic traditions of the nation The US and Brazil on Wednesday escalated their row over US President Donald Trump’s support for former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro, with Washington slapping a 50 percent tariff on one of its main steel suppliers. Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva threatened to reciprocate. Trump has criticized the prosecution of Bolsonaro, who is on trial for allegedly plotting to cling on to power after losing 2022 elections to Lula. Brasilia on Wednesday summoned Washington’s top envoy to the country to explain an embassy statement describing Bolsonaro as a victim of “political persecution” — echoing Trump’s description of the treatment of Bolsonaro as
Pakistani police yesterday said a father shot dead his daughter after she refused to delete her TikTok account. In the Muslim-majority country, women can be subjected to violence by family members for not following strict rules on how to behave in public, including in online spaces. “The girl’s father had asked her to delete her TikTok account. On refusal, he killed her,” a police spokesperson said. Investigators said the father killed his 16-year-old daughter on Tuesday “for honor,” the police report said. The man was subsequently arrested. The girl’s family initially tried to “portray the murder as a suicide” said police in
The military is to begin conscripting civilians next year, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet said yesterday, citing rising tensions with Thailand as the reason for activating a long-dormant mandatory enlistment law. The Cambodian parliament in 2006 approved a law that would require all Cambodians aged 18 to 30 to serve in the military for 18 months, although it has never been enforced. Relations with Thailand have been tense since May, when a long-standing territorial dispute boiled over into cross-border clashes, killing one Cambodian soldier. “This episode of confrontation is a lesson for us and is an opportunity for us to review, assess and
RSS