WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered the deployment of the aircraft carrier Gerald Ford as well as its accompanying warships and attack planes to waters off Latin America, the Pentagon said Friday, in a dramatic escalation of military might in the region.

The enhanced U.S. presence “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,” Sean Parnell, the Pentagon’s chief spokesperson, said on social media.

Parnell did not say when the Ford, the Navy’s most modern and technologically advanced carrier, would be moving to the region or where it would be positioned. Navy officials said Friday that the Ford is currently steam

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