Washington — The Pentagon said Friday that the U.S. is sending an aircraft carrier strike group to the waters off Latin America, an escalation that will dramatically increase the number of service members and ships dedicated to the Trump administration's campaign to counter narcotics traffickers.

Sean Parnell, a Pentagon spokesman, said on X that Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth "has directed the Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group and embarked carrier air wing to the U.S. Southern Command" area of responsibility. Southern Command is responsible for the Caribbean Sea, Central and South America and the surrounding waters.

Parnell said the "enhanced U.S. force presence" will "bolster U.S. capacity to detect, monitor, and disrupt illicit actors and activities that compromise the saf

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