In recent weeks, the United States military and technological presence in the Caribbean has once again gained prominence, with the installation of a new radar in Trinidad and Tobago and several deployments in the region. These movements are interpreted by analysts as part of a broader strategy of surveillance and pressure that could have direct implications for governments allied to Caracas, such as Nicaragua.
In recent weeks, the military and technological presence of the United States in the Caribbean has once again gained prominence. The latest movements from the Pentagon, added to stronger messages from Washington, have reactivated the concern in governments that maintain close ties with Caracas.
This context has fueled the idea of a broader surveillance and pressure strategy, with direct repercussions for several surrounding countries.
Nothing to do, of course, with the conversation that, according to The New York TimesNicolás Maduro and Donald Trump had last week to negotiate diplomatically. This approach has had no real consequences in the military escalation, which has not decreased.
At the same time, the deployments, exercises and high-level meetings recorded in the region are seen as signs that the White House seeks to strengthen its capacity for action in points considered sensitive. This sequence of events is what allows us to place both the installation of the new radar in Trinidad and Tobago and the expectations of an increase in pressure on Nicaragua in the same framework.
Monitor activities from Tobago
The Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago, Kamla Persad-Bissessar, has confirmed that the United States Army is installing a new radar on the island of Tobago, near the coast of Venezuela.
According to Persad-Bissessar, the facility aims to monitor activities inside and outside the country and will improve surveillance of drug traffickers in Trinidadian waters. The president added that US troops remain in the country and have collaborated in the modernization of the airport and in surveillance tasks in Tobago, despite the fact that days before she had stated that the marines had left.
Citizens had reported the presence of marines in a popular hotel in Tobago and flight tracking platforms detected landings of military aircraft at ANR Robinson International Airport.
Between November 16 and 21, some 350 troops from the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit of the United States conducted joint exercises with the Trinidad and Tobago Defense Force.
On Tuesday before confirmation, Persad-Bissessar met with US Chief of Staff Dan Caine to discuss regional security challenges and the activities of transnational criminal organizations. A day later, the prime minister assured that Washington has not asked her country to be “a base for any war against Venezuela.”
In Washington, the same context—an air and naval deployment in the Caribbean Sea—has fueledo analysis of the extent of US pressure in the region. President Donald Trump warned in an appearance that the Armed Forces would act “very soon” on the ground against what he described as “Venezuelan drug traffickers,” while the Venezuelan government, led by Nicolás Maduro, responded by displaying its aviation and declarations of territorial defense.
Prelude to pressure on Nicaragua
This combination of operational deployment and surveillance capabilities – represented, on the ground, by the radar in Tobago – is interpreted by experts as a prelude that could be expanded to other governments allied to Caracas. In San José, analysts and critics of Sandinism point out that Nicaragua could be subject to greater pressure from the US Administration if tensions with Venezuela intensify.
Sociologist Javier Meléndez, critic of the Nicaraguan Executive, told EFE that “a period of great pressure and a lot of stress for the regime” by Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo if the United States decides to intervene in Venezuela. Meléndez pointed out that, in that scenario, Nicaragua would be left with fewer allies with which to organize a collective complaint and would also lose material support that it received from Venezuela.
For his part, researcher Robert Evan Ellis, from the Institute of Strategic Studies of the United States Army War College, warned that Nicaragua “is receiving more attention” from Washington and that, for the Administration, it could be a target due to its association with issues such as drug trafficking and migration.
Ellis clarifies that Immediate action on Managua is not easy: The drug route in Nicaragua is smaller than in other countries and, in the short term, the United States may not make the fight against Ortega a priority. However, he considers Ortega a strategic threat due to his ties with Russia, China and Cuba and does not rule out that, in the long term, US attention will increase.
The analysts cited directly link the surveillance capacity deployed in the Caribbean, including the radar station in Tobago, with a real possibility of escalation directed not only at Venezuela but also at regional actors that support or benefit from their ties with Caracas. This reading explains why Managua has the possibility of becoming the next focus of diplomatic, economic or security pressures, if US policy in the region changes phase.
The information collected by EFE therefore records the convergence between a specific military and technological deployment – the installation in Tobago – and a broader strategic debate on Washington’s possible steps in Central America, especially against governments associated with Venezuela. The tension remains, and the international movements of the coming weeks will be closely observed by governments and analysts in the region.