WASHINGTON (Reuters) -President Donald Trump dramatically escalated a U.S. military buildup in the Caribbean on Friday by deploying the Gerald Ford aircraft carrier group to Latin America, a show of force that far exceeds any past counter-narcotics need and represents Washington’s most muscular move yet in the Latin America region.

“The enhanced U.S. force presence in the USSOUTHCOM AOR will bolster U.S. capacity to detect, monitor, and disrupt illicit actors and activities that compromise the safety and prosperity of the United States homeland and our security in the Western Hemisphere,” Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell posted on X.

He did not specify when the carrier would be moving to the region, but as of a few days ago, the carrier was traveling via the Strait of Gibraltar and in

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