Massive US Marine Buildup in Caribbean Just 7 Miles from Venezuela's Coast

[steve2470]

https://www.military.com/feature/2025/11/19/massive-us-marine-buildup-caribbean-just-7-miles-venezuelas-coast.html

(as far as I know, this is a legit source. If you know better, please inform, thanks)

The U.S. military has deployed one of its largest forces to the Caribbean in decades, placing thousands of Marines and the world's most advanced aircraft carrier right on Venezuela's doorstep.

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth announced Operation Southern Spear on November 13, 2025, describing it as a mission to "remove narco-terrorists from our Hemisphere" and stop drugs killing Americans. The operation falls under U.S. Southern Command and Joint Task Force Southern Spear.

The USS Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group entered the Caribbean Sea on November 16, 2025, after crossing into the USSOUTHCOM area of responsibility on November 11. The Ford, the Navy's newest supercarrier, brings F-35C stealth fighters, advanced radars, and a full air wing.

The buildup includes the USS Iwo Jima Amphibious Ready Group with the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) embarked. This adds more than 2,200 Marines, MV-22 Ospreys, CH-53E helicopters, and landing craft. In total, nearly a dozen warships and around 12,000 sailors and Marines now operate in the region.

[surfered]

1. Trump's riding the short bus to crazy town and Hegseth must be on a binder.

[steve2470]

2. of course this Venezuela thing has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with the Epstein files....

/ sarcasm off

[Lovie777]

3. Nor drugs............

[steve2470]

4. exactly nt

[duckworth969]

5. Orinoco Belt Oil Reserve and Coltan

Is what this Venezuela military operation is all about.

The Orinoco Belt is the largest oil reserve on the planet.

From Wiki:

“…the producible reserves of the Orinoco Belt are up to 235 billion barrels (3.74×1010 m3) which would make it the largest petroleum reserve in the world…”.

And Coltan is a rare earth used in electronics such as smart phone, smart bombs, etc.

Article is from 2012, but gives you an idea why Coltan is important to manufacturers and part of the black market trade activity with Venezuela and Colombia.

https://www.icij.org/investigations/coltan/venezuela-emerges-new-source-conflict-minerals/