A US guided missile cruiser, the USS Lake Erie, crossed the Panama Canal from the Pacific to the Caribbean on Friday night, August 29, as part of the Trump administration’s deployment of warships near Venezuela’s coast.
AFP reporters observed the 567-foot-long vessel, which displaces 9,800 tons, passing through one of the canal’s locks at around 9:30 p.m. local time before heading east toward the Atlantic. The ship had been moored for two days at the Port of Rodman near the Pacific entrance of the canal.
Washington has framed the naval deployment in the southern Caribbean, near Venezuelan territorial waters, as an anti-drug trafficking operation. US authorities have accused Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro of leading a drug cartel and recently doubled the bounty for his capture to $50 million.
“I didn’t know the ship was going to pass… I was surprised,” said Alfredo Cedeno, a health technician who photographed the cruiser.
Caracas has responded by deploying 15,000 security forces to the Colombian border and announcing patrols of its territorial waters using drones and navy ships. Maduro also claimed he had mobilised more than four million militia members in response to what he described as US threats.
The deployment comes amid heightened tensions between Washington and Caracas, but the US has made no public threat to invade Venezuela. Observers say the movement of the USS Lake Erie is intended to demonstrate US naval capability and readiness in the region while supporting anti-narcotics operations.
The cruiser, which is based in San Diego, California, is one of several warships the US has positioned near Venezuela, signalling a firm stance on drug trafficking concerns while testing Caracas’ military response.
