The U.S. military is deploying an aircraft carrier to waters off South America, marking the latest increase in military presence and activity in the region, the Pentagon announced Friday. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has directed the USS Gerald R. Ford and its accompanying strike group to move under U.S. Southern Command to “enhance U.S. capacity to detect, monitor, and disrupt illicit actors and activities that threaten the safety and prosperity of the United States,” Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said in a social media statement. The USS Ford strike group includes five destroyers and is currently operating in the Mediterranean Sea. According to a person familiar with the deployment, one destroyer is positioned in the Arabian Sea and another in the Red Sea. As of the announcement,

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