US sends aircraft carrier to South America as airstrike on ‘drug boat’ kills six

The USS Gerald R. Ford will sail form the Mediterranean to South America (Andrew Matthews/PA)

The US military is sending an aircraft carrier to the waters off South America, in the latest escalation and build-up of military forces in the region, the Pentagon announced on Friday.

Defence secretary Pete Hegseth ordered the USS Gerald R Ford and its strike group to deploy to US Southern Command to “bolster US capacity to detect, monitor, and disrupt illicit actors and activities that compromise the safety and prosperity of the United States,” Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said in a social media post.