Nimitz Aircraft Carrier Enters Caribbean as Trump Pressures Cuba

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/20/us/politics/aircraft-carrier-caribbean-cuba-trump.html

Nimitz Aircraft Carrier Enters Caribbean as Trump Pressures Cuba
The carrier arrived in the southern Caribbean on the same day that the Justice Department announced charges against Raul Castro.
By Eric Schmitt
May 20, 2026

The aircraft carrier Nimitz and its escort warships entered the southern Caribbean Sea on Wednesday and will remain in the region for at least a few days as part of the Trump administration’s campaign to pressure the Cuban government, according to the military’s Southern Command and a U.S. official.

Right now, the administration intends to use the Nimitz, and its wing of fighter jets, as a show of force, not as a platform for major military operations, as the aircraft carrier Gerald Ford did during the commando raid to seize President Nicolas Maduro of Venezuela in January, said the U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss operational matters.

The Nimitz has spent the past several weeks sailing along the South American coast on a previously scheduled training deployment, in recent days conducting exercises with the Brazilian navy.

Still, it hardly seemed coincidental that the Pentagon timed the arrival of the carrier into the southern Caribbean on the same day that the Justice Department announced charges against Raul Castro, the 94-year-old former president of Cuba.

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