Just when you thought it was safe to go back into Latin American waters, the U.S. Navy is once again conducting military maneuvers in the Caribbean and off the coast of South America. The two month long training exercise was announced last week and includes four ships, a 60-plane air wing and 6,500 sailors. The exercises, to resume sometime early this month, will mark the first time the Navy is in the region since ending exercises in Vieques, Puerto Rico, which were halted in January 2003 after years of struggle and protest both in Puerto Rico and in the United States. Loren Thompson of the Lexington Institute, a pro-defense think tank in Washington said :

The presence of a U.S. carrier task force in the Caribbean will definitely be interpreted as some sort of signal by the governments of Cuba and Venezuela.

You think? Just one more reason why the U.S. is not going to let Puerto Rico out of its grip.

Via / The Virginian-Pilot