The U.S. Department of Defense announced that the USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN-78) and its Carrier Strike Group — including the Arleigh Burke–class guided-missile destroyers USS Mahan (DDG-72), USS Winston S. Churchill (DDG-81), and USS Bainbridge (DDG-96) — have been redirected from the Mediterranean to the U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) area of responsibility near Venezuela. The Ford will join the Iwo Jima Amphibious Ready Group (ARG) and other U.S. air and naval assets already positioned in the southern Caribbean and around Puerto Rico. If there were any doubt that the Trump Administration is preparing a much broader operation involving Venezuela and the wider Latin American region, this move removes it. The Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group had only recently entered the Mediterranean, and its redeployment across the Atlantic suggests a major strategic shift — one that likely involves far more than targeting small cartel smuggling boats.