Donald Trump sending US carrier to Latin America as war fears rise

The Pentagon on Friday ordered the deployment of an aircraft carrier strike group to counter drug-trafficking organizations in Latin America, a major escalation of a US military buildup that Venezuela's leader warned was steered at "fabricating a war." The deployment of the USS Gerald R Ford and accompanying ships "will enhance and augment existing capabilities to disrupt narcotics trafficking and degrade and dismantle TCOs," Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said in a statement, referring to transnational criminal organizations.