This week the U.S. military buildup off the coast of Venezuela continued, with two B-1 bombers flying as close to land as any have come in previous flights, according to Air & Space Force Magazine. This is a transparent  “show of force” as the B-1s did not turn off their transponders, wanting everyone, especially Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro, to know exactly where they are. The bombers are capable of carrying cruise missiles and guided bombs that could be used in possible strikes on land and aren’t the first buzzing the area in recent weeks.

They certainly aren’t the only assets in the region either. The USS Gerald Ford carrier strike group is on its way down to the region from the CENTCOM area of operations in the Middle East. It brings a host of weapons systems, not the least of which are F-35 and F-18 fighters with a range of missile capabilities, and accompanying destroyers that can fire Tomahawks and a likely Virginia class submarine also with the ability to launch Tomahawks.

According to the Washington Post:

The carrier will join an armada that has been assembled in the Caribbean. Other vessels there include the destroyers USS Jason Dunham, USS Gravely, USS Stockdale, the guided-missile cruiser Lake Erie, and the littoral combat ship Wichita. The Navy and Marine Corps also have combined to deploy the Iwo Jima amphibious ready group, a three-ship task force that includes additional sailors and Marines, off the coast of Venezuela.

The Marines are with the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit, of Camp Lejeune in North Carolina. It includes Harrier fighter jets, helicopters and a battalion with hundreds of infantry Marines.

The Pentagon in recent weeks also has deployed the MV Ocean Trader, a civilian ship converted into a floating Special Operations base that can dispatch troops on short notice.

The ship’s presence in the Caribbean coincided with the deployment of select aircraft from the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, an elite helicopter unit that supports the most dangerous missions in the world.

Visuals analyzed by The Washington Post showed helicopters, including MH-6 Little Birds that commanders favor for Special Operations ground assaults, flying less than 90 miles from Venezuela’s coastline in early October.

When the USS Gerald Ford arrives there will be more than 10,000 U.S. military personnel in the region. Not enough for a proper invasion, but a growing footprint nonetheless, and no doubt troubling for Maduro and Venezuela’s neighbors who are now getting a sense of what Trump’s effort to revitalize the Monroe Doctrine is shaping up to look like. 

Is this war? Maximum pressure? Regime change (pushed by one of the most powerful people in his cabinet, today, Marco Rubio?). Here to talk to us this week are two informed critics of the U.S. moves in the region, which also include U.S. military strikes on 12 alleged narco boats in the Caribbean and Pacific, and at least 50 dead that we know of, as of Tuesday. 

Jen Kavanagh is a senior fellow & director of military analysis at Defense Priorities and Dan DePetris  syndicated foreign affairs columnist for the Chicago Tribune, a foreign affairs writer for Newsweek, and a fellow at Defense Priorities.

More from Jennifer:

After strong-arming a ceasefire in Gaza, Trump tries to do it again in Ukraine

Pushing regime change in Venezuela is a terrible idea

More from Dan:

Trump’s Foreign Policy of Short-Termism

Donald Trump brings the war on terrorism to the Caribbean