Since late August, the U.S. military has carried out a steady and significant buildup of forces in the Caribbean, with about 10,000 troops at sea and on shore.
It is the largest deployment of U.S. forces in the region in decades and intended to bolster what the Trump administration says is a counterdrug and counterterrorism mission.
The United States has also carried out several lethal strikes on boats that the administration said were carrying narcotics. President Trump and other officials have posted videos of the strikes on social media.
Much of the military buildup is visible in commercial and scientific satellite images and in photographs shared on social media and by residents of the region. Some of the military flights can be seen on publicly available flight-tracking websites. The military has also posted details about U.S. activities in the Caribbean.
But officials have privately made clear that the main goal of the troop increase — which Mr. Trump said this week could also include covert C.I.A. operations — is to drive Venezuela’s authoritarian leader, Nicolás Maduro, from power.
About half of the U.S. force is aboard eight Navy warships, including about 2,200 Marines equipped with fighter jets. The other, slightly larger half of the force is mostly at air bases in Puerto Rico, and includes Marine Corps F-35 fighter jets, Air Force MQ-9 Reaper drones and a variety of other surveillance planes and support personnel.
An increased display of military force
In recent days, there has been a dramatic show of aerial threats in the region. On Wednesday, at least two B-52 bombers from Louisiana flew for several hours off the Venezuelan coast in what one senior U.S. official on Thursday called “a show of force.” While the bombers flew in international air space, they were in an air traffic control region managed by Venezuela. B-52s can carry dozens of precision-guided bombs.
An elite Army Special Operations unit has also been conducting helicopter flights over the ocean between Venezuela and Trinidad and Tobago. Farther south, residents revealed that U.S. Navy surveillance planes were flying over southern Trinidad and Tobago, only a dozen miles from the Venezuelan coast, by posting videos of them on social media.
The New York Times also identified the M.V. Ocean Trader, a vessel that can serve as a Special Operations headquarters and is primarily used in stealth missions. The ship was captured in satellite imagery about 85 miles northeast of Venezuela.
Two large Navy replenishment vessels, which deliver fuel and supplies to warships, were also seen in Puerto Rico on Sunday.
U.S. military officials said the air and naval operations were, at least for now, training missions — not rehearsals for possible military strikes in Venezuela. But this type of military presence in the region speaks to the increased pressure on Mr. Maduro and gives Mr. Trump options for what to do next.
How the U.S. is positioning itself
The U.S. military buildup has been most noticeable at sea, but the Pentagon has also quietly sent several thousand flight crews, maintenance specialists, security forces and other support personnel to bases in the region.
Puerto Rico is the main U.S. military base for its Caribbean operations. Rafael Hernández Airport in Aguadilla has been turned into a hub for armed drone flights. Satellite imagery shows that the United States built a new bunker last month to store ammunition for the drones.
Near the ammunition bunker, the imagery also shows a MQ-9 Reaper drone, which can be used for reconnaissance and striking targets.
On the other side of the island, over a dozen military aircraft are based next to the town of Ceiba, including Marine Corps F-35 stealth fighter jets, helicopters and at least one Air Force AC-130 gunship. The aircraft are flying missions from an airport at the Roosevelt Roads Naval Station, which the military closed in 2004.
And in the U.S. Virgin Islands, a small airport on St. Croix hosts three Air Force refueling aircraft and a new radar system, perched on a hill overlooking the Caribbean. The radar, seen in a photograph taken by a resident, is used by the Air Force to monitor the airspace and track aircraft.
Tim Wallace contributed reporting.
Riley Mellen is a reporter on The Times’s Visual Investigations team, which combines traditional reporting with advanced digital forensics.
Eric Schmitt is a national security correspondent for The Times. He has reported on U.S. military affairs and counterterrorism for more than three decades.
Christoph Koettl is a Times reporter on the Visual Investigations team.
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