Country 40 Miles From Venezuela Says U.S. Warships Will Arrive In a Matter Of Days

Curazao Prime Minister Gilmar Pisas said that U.S. warships deployed to the region are expected to arrive to the country over the next days as the Trump administration steps up pressure on Venezuela's authoritarian regime.

Pisas added that the USS Gravely and the USS Sampson are expected to arrive to the country's shores days later. While he clarified that the "National Security Service is in constant contact with our international partners and there is no hints of direct combat," he advised nationals "not to travel to Venezuela until further notice."

Another country in the region, Trinidad and Tobago, declared its support for the deployment, which the Trump administration says its aimed at fighting drug-trafficking in the region, and said it will allow American forces to use its territory if Venezuela's authoritarian president Nicolás Maduro were to attack neighboring Guyana, with which it currently has a heated territorial dispute.

In this context, Caracas sent a letter to the UN asking for its support over what it described as "continued threats" from the United States.

Concretely, Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yvan Gil gave the letter to Gianluca Rampolla, UN official in the South American country. It claims that the country "strongly denounces the deployment, which is a grave threat to peace and security in the region."

"The presence of an offensive submarine in Latin America and the Caribbean contradicts our nations' historic commitment to disarming and the peaceful resolution of disputes, and represents a clear act of intimidation that is against the letter and spirit of the UN Charter," the letter adds.

The document goes on to claim that the use of a nuclear submarine, which has no transparency regarding its load or rules of use, undermines the purpose of the charter and erodes the collective trust in the regime of regional denuclearization."

The document ends with three requests: the end of the U.S. deployment, "clear and verifiable guarantees from the U.S. that it won't deploy nor threat to use nuclear weapons in Latin America and the Caribbean," and a conference attended by countries from the region regarding the most recent actions.