Under pressure to take military action in Venezuela, the Pentagon will deploy a military hospital ship to the region to help care for Venezuelan refugees.
U.S. Vice President Mike Pence, speaking at a gathering of Latin American diplomats at the State Department, announced the USNS Comfort will be dispatched in June for a five-month humanitarian mission to the Caribbean, Central America and South America.
“United States military and medical personnel, working alongside their counterparts from across the region, will provide medical assistance to communities in need and help relieve countries overwhelmed by the influx of people fleeing Venezuela,” Pence said during his address to the 49th Annual Washington Conference on the Americas.
Amid the uncertainty following an unsuccessful opposition uprising in Venezuela, the Trump administration has been scrambling for new ideas to increase pressure on the government of Nicolás Maduro.
Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan told reporters Tuesday the decision to send the military hospital ship came after careful discussion with Navy Adm. Craig Faller, commander of U.S. Southern Command. The military leaders had met with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and National Security Advisor John Bolton last week.
“The message I want to make sure comes across is that we are very well coordinated and disciplined and have a broad set of contingency plans,” Shanahan said. “It’s very hard to predict the future, right? And so for every single option you want to have a plan. I think we’ll do some good coordination and communication today to kind of validate the work that’s in front of us.”
Pence said the United States will continue to exert all diplomatic and economic pressure to ensure a peaceful transition to democracy in Venezuela. He called on allies around the world to speak with a unified voice to help the Venezuelan people.
Last week, Juan Guaidó, whom the United States considers the legitimate president of Venezuela, stood in front of armed military officers and called for Venezuelans to join him for the “final phase” of an effort to take physical control of the government. But Guaidó was unable to rally enough support from the Venezuelan military, and after days of violence in street protests, Maduro has held control of the military and government offices.
