Venezuela has been on tenterhooks for weeks, waiting as the United States gathers an armada of warships. Next week, the world’s largest aircraft carrier, USS Gerald R. Ford, looks likely to sail from the Mediterranean to join the assortment of destroyers, frigates, amphibious assault vessels and a nuclear-powered submarine.

No one seems to know exactly what this magnificent display of American naval firepower is all about. Has it been sent to destroy the cocaine smuggling networks in Venezuela, or topple President Nicolas Maduro, the egregious leader of that poor country? Or is its purpose to remind the Latin American region that the US under Donald Trump could come in guns a-blazing whenever it wants?

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