The world's largest aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R. Ford, had arrived in the Caribbean Sea, the U.S. Navy announced on Sunday.
The arrival of the U.S. aircraft carrier in the Caribbean Sea has fueled the speculation that Washington is targeting Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro as part of what the Trump administration calls an anti-narco-terrorism campaign.
The carrier strike group will join joint forces already in the region to defeat and dismantle criminal networks, said the U.S. Southern Command in a statement.
The statement followed an earlier U.S. Navy announcement on Tuesday that the carrier strike group had arrived in the Caribbean Sea, though it did not specify its precise location.
The United States has recently deployed several warships to waters off Venezuela, citing efforts to counter narco-terrorism.
However, reports from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) in recent years have indicated that Venezuela is not a primary source of drugs entering the United States.
The Venezuelan government has repeatedly accused the United States of seeking regime change in the Latin American country through military threat and expanding its presence in Latin America.
U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday that he had "'sort of' decided how to proceed on Venezuela" but declined to offer details.
In response, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro said on the same day that U.S. military activity in the Caribbean had amounted to a major international challenge.
US carrier arrives in Caribbean Sea, escalating tensions with Venezuela
US carrier arrives in Caribbean Sea, escalating tensions with Venezuela
Over a dozen Japanese scholars and former government officials held a press conference in Tokyo on Monday, urging Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi to immediately retract her earlier erroneous remarks on China's Taiwan region, warning the comments could further strain relations between China and Japan.
Takaichi's remarks in the Diet had clearly deviated from the basic position maintained by successive Japanese governments on the Taiwan question, said the attendees at the event held by the Association for Inheriting and Propagating the Murayama Statement, a Japanese civil group dedicated to upholding the 1995 Murayama Statement that acknowledges Japan's wartime mistakes.
"Takaichi's so-called 'survival-threatening situation' is extremely dangerous. It not only violates Article 9 of the Constitution but also breaches the international law. I want to emphasize that such statements will break the international trust Japan has built up to this point," said Kumiko Haba, professor emeritus at Aoyama Gakuin University.
"Following prime minister Takaichi's remarks on November 7, she claimed that her remarks did not represent the unified government position, and then said that they aligned with the Japan's long-held diplomatic stance. This is contradictory. I must say, this is an attempt to get away with it, or even to shift the argument," said Kazuhide Uekusa, a political economist.
"Prime minister Takaichi's remarks on November 7 have resulted in an exceptionally difficult period for China-Japan relations," said Kazuhiko Togo, former director-general of Treaties Bureau at Japan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and visiting professor of Kyoto Sangyo University.
Scholars at the event noted that since Takaichi took office, she has advocated for greatly increasing defense spending to acquire "the capability to strike enemy bases". Japanese society should be wary of the government going further down the path of military expansion.
"Revising the three major security documents, easing export restrictions on defense equipment, allowing free exports of weapons, bringing forward the military spending target -- originally projected to reach 2 percent of GDP by 2027 to this year -- and increasing the target to 3.5 percent of GDP, all these moves have shown that Takaichi's 'is eager to engage in war,'" said Masakatsu Adachi, an honorary professor of Kanto Gakuin University.
The association published a statement demanding Takaichi withdraw her comments.
The statement said her remarks in the Diet marked a clear departure from those of the previous government, and it is the first time in the Diet that a Japanese prime minister had indicated Japan would enter a wartime posture in the event of a "Taiwan contingency," which could be seen as a revival of Japanese militarism.
The statement also accused Japan of instigating the current tensions while portraying itself as a victim, and called on Takaichi to acknowledge that the Taiwan question is China's internal affair and immediately retract the remarks.
"Takaichi's remarks not only violate Article 9 of Japan's pacifist constitution but also breach the international law. Intervention in the Taiwan question and a lack of respect for the one-China principle are seen as attempts by Japan to meddle in China's affairs once again. Takaichi should realize that the Taiwan question is China's internal affairs. She should retract her remarks about the so-called 'Taiwan emergency' immediately," said Takakage Fujita, secretary-general of the association.
"Japan's current socioeconomic predicament sees wages stagnant amid climbing prices. Where do people vent their discontent? Politicians often seek out some weak links among certain so-called 'enemies' and shift the blame onto them," said Hiroshi Tanaka, professor emeritus of Hitotsubashi University.
"Her remarks almost overturned all the commitments Japan made to China after the war. It can only be understood in this way. I think she must retract her remarks," said Mieko Takenobu, professor emerita of Wako University.
Japanese public figures demand Takaichi retract Taiwan-related remarks
