Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro is under increasing pressure from the United States to get his grip on power, and the Venezuelan people are getting ready to fight back. The Venezuelan government has deployed a massive naval strike group to Venezuela s coast, and Washington says it s all about fighting drug cartels. But is this really about stopping cocaine shipments, or is it about regime change?
00:00:00.000Venezuela has already deployed warships and drones along the country's northern coast,
00:00:04.500a response to the U.S. sending three naval destroyers and 4,000 marines to the region.
00:00:10.640Washington says that move is also ostensibly aimed at fighting drug cartels.
00:00:18.500Something big is happening in the Caribbean right now, something we haven't seen in years.
00:00:24.620The United States has parked a powerful naval strike group just off of Venezuela's coast.
00:00:30.120Not a couple of ships, we're talking destroyers, a cruiser, a nuclear submarine,
00:00:35.700yes, you heard that right, nuclear, and even an amphibious assault ship carrying thousands of marines.
00:00:42.780Washington says it's all about the drug cartels, but when you look at the size of this deployment,
00:00:47.440you have to ask, is this really about stopping cocaine shipments, or is it about regime change in Venezuela?
00:00:54.160The ships include the USS Jason Dunham, USS Gravely, the USS Samson, the cruiser USS Lake Erie,
00:01:06.360the nuclear-powered submarine USS Newport News, and the USS Iwo Jima, an amphibious assault ship with over 4,500 sailors and marines on board.
00:01:18.580That's a small invasion force floating in the Caribbean right now.
00:01:22.680The Pentagon is calling this an enhanced counter-narcotics operation, targeting Venezuelan networks like the Cartel de los Soles and Tren de Aragua.
00:01:33.660And the White House just declared both as foreign terrorist organizations.