US guided missile cruiser USS Lake Erie crossed the Panama Canal amid President Donald Trump’s latest anti-drug trafficking operation.
According to news agency AFP, the naval vessel was passing through the canal’s lock at around 9:30 pm and navigated east towards the Atlantic Ocean.
This comes after the Trump administration deployed warships to the southern Caribbean, near Venezuela’s territorial waters, as an anti-drug trafficking operation.
Seven US warships, along with one nuclear-powered fast attack submarine, are either in the region or are expected to be there soon, bringing along more than 4,500 sailors and marines, news agency Reuters reported.While US Coast Guard and Navy ships regularly operate in the southern Caribbean, the current buildup exceeds the usual deployments in the region.
In the naval force are warships, including USS San Antonio, USS Iwo Jima, and USS Fort Lauderdale. Some can carry aerial assets like helicopters, while others can also deploy Tomahawk cruise missiles.
The US military has also been flying P-8 spy planes in the region to gather intelligence, US officials have said. They have been flying over international waters.”I didn’t know the ship was going to pass… I was surprised,” Alfredo Cedeno, a 32-year-old health technician who took photos of the cruiser, told AFP.
