The U.S. continues to increase pressure on Venezuela as it builds up military presence in the Caribbean and Puerto Rico. CBS News national security correspondent Charlie D'Agata has more details.

Washington

The United States has expanded its military deployment in the Caribbean, with the Trump administration announcing plans to classify a Venezuelan cartel as a foreign terrorist organization. The USS Gerald R. Ford, multiple destroyers, F-18 and F-35 fighter jets, and MQ-9 Reaper drones are among the assets now stationed in the region, alongside approximately 15,000 U.S. service members.

President Trump has stated that sending ground forces to Venezuela remains an option, though current troop levels are not sufficient for a ground invasion according to military analysts. The enhanced military posture, the largest in Southern Command in decades, is intended to support potential precision airstrikes and counter-narcotics operations, with 2,200 Marines also conducting exercises near Trinidad and Tobago.

Trump increases pressure on Venezuela with built up military presence

Turning now to the Caribbean, the U.S. military has added even more firepower to the region as the Trump administration has announced it's going to designate a Venezuelan cartel as a foreign terrorist organization. CBS News Senior National Security Correspondent Charlie Thagen joins us now from Puerto Rico to talk about this. So, Charlie, good morning. What is the state now of American deployments to the region? Boy, Vlad, how much time have we got? You know, as you mentioned, the USS Gerald R. Ford got into the neighborhood a couple of days ago. On board just the Ford, you've got four squadrons of F-18 fighter jets. It came with three more destroyers. And I say more destroyers because there are already 11 or 12 warships, either destroyers or cruisers. All of those are armed with Tomahawk cruise missiles. Here in Puerto Rico, we reported, we spoke about it yesterday, F-35 fighter jets. We've seen for ourselves after our little live shot yesterday, we saw two of the F-35s taking off. And we're told these take off a couple of times a day. And just a few moments ago, I spoke to the mayor of Aguadilla. And there you'll find the MQ-9 Reaper drones. These are the drones that we believe, not officially confirmed, are responsible for the strikes on these drug smuggling boats. And there are thousands of U.S. troops here. We're looking at a total force posture of about 15,000 individuals, service members, either dotted around these areas or at sea. So it's about as full frontal, full throttle as the U.S. military gets, and certainly on a scale that this particular region, what the military calls Southern Command, has not seen in decades. Wow. All right. So, Charlie, is the Trump administration considering sending troops to Venezuela or authorizing strikes in the region, perhaps even against the country's interests? Yeah, I'm going to break that down in two ways, Vlad, because first of all, President Trump himself said that he hasn't ruled it out. Now, that's sending in ground forces. And honestly, even as much as I told you, as far as how many troops are here, it still would not be enough, most military analysts say, to launch a ground invasion. The strikes are a different thing. The F-35s alone could have launched these strikes in Venezuela even before the Ford arrived. But what the Ford does is bring a whole new package. I can remind you of the fight against the Houthis. So there you had the Eisenhower, and they were just running these F-18s off the deck constantly day and night, because what you're going to want to do is take out air suppression inside Venezuela itself. You don't want to put pilots at risk. So that's one part of it. And then the bombing raids themselves would be taken care of by the F-35s or the F-18s. So precision strikes inside Venezuela, they've already set the table if that becomes an option. Ground forces is another thing. There are 2,200 Marines currently on exercise, by the way, around Trinidad and Tobago. Those are landing forces. But you'd really want a much bigger ground force than that. And I'll just kind of give you the idea of Panama, which we had many more forces and a much smaller country. Wow. Yeah, I remember that operation. I also remember when I was a young Army ROTC cadet at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, Charlie, that the young soldiers at the 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg called it, if you recall, the operation was called Just Cause. The soldiers there called it Operation Just Because. So a little bit of that insider information for you. Charlie Daggett reporting from Puerto Rico. Thank you, Charlie.

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