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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 Washington’s ongoing deployment of naval forces near Venezuela’s coast.
AFP reporters observed the 567-foot vessel, which displaces 9,800 tons, navigating one of the canal’s locks around 9:30 p.m. local time before proceeding east toward the Atlantic. The cruiser had been docked for two days at the Port of Rodman near the canal’s Pacific entrance.
The US has framed its naval presence in the southern Caribbean as an anti-drug trafficking mission. American authorities accuse Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro of heading 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.
In response, Caracas has deployed 15,000 security personnel to the Colombian border and announced drone and navy patrols of its territorial waters. Maduro also claimed to have mobilized more than four million militia members against what he described as US threats.
While Washington has not publicly threatened to invade Venezuela, the deployment reflects heightened tensions between the two countries. Analysts say the movement of the USS Lake Erie serves both as a show of US naval strength in the region and as support for anti-narcotics operations.
The cruiser, based in San Diego, California, is among several US warships positioned near Venezuela, underscoring Washington’s hard line on drug trafficking while testing Caracas’ military posture.
