Nimitz Enters Caribbean With Escort Warships as U.S. Presses Cuba Over 94-Year-Old Raul Castro
Updated
Updated · The New York Times · May 21
Nimitz Enters Caribbean With Escort Warships as U.S. Presses Cuba Over 94-Year-Old Raul Castro
6 articles · Updated · The New York Times · May 21
The Nimitz and its escort warships entered the southern Caribbean on Wednesday and are expected to stay for at least several days in a U.S. show of force aimed at Cuba.
U.S. officials said the carrier is meant to signal pressure rather than launch major operations, unlike the Gerald Ford’s role in the January commando raid that seized Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro.
The timing aligned with the Justice Department’s announcement of charges against Raul Castro, Cuba’s 94-year-old former president, reinforcing the administration’s pressure campaign.
The Nimitz had been on a previously scheduled training deployment off South America and recently drilled with Brazil’s navy, while the amphibious assault ship Tripoli also remains in the region.
The move partially rebuilds a U.S. military presence in the Caribbean after forces assembled for the Maduro operation were later redirected to the Iran war.
With Russia and China backing Cuba, could the US pressure campaign ignite a larger international conflict in the Caribbean?
Is the indictment of Raul Castro a prelude to another US-led regime change operation, similar to the one in Venezuela?