What we know of the countries backing US military moves in the Caribbean

By Gonzalo Zegarra, CNN

(CNN) — The United States shared images on Wednesday of joint military exercises in Trinidad and Tobago, as its armed forces amass in the region, building pressure on Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.

The deployment is receiving logistical and diplomatic support from multiple Latin American countries, ranging from limited assistance to open cooperation with to US forces.

Here’s more on who’s backing the US operation in the Caribbean, which Washington says is meant to combat drug trafficking in the region:

Trinidad and Tobago

Trinidad and Tobago, which is only 11 kilometers (7 miles) from Venezuela at its closest point, has declared its full support for the US operation.

“I, along with most of the country, am happy that the US naval deployment is having success in their mission,” Trinidadian Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar said in early September, after the US launched its first attack on an alleged drug vessel in the Caribbean. “I have no sympathy for traffickers; the US military should kill them all violently,” she added.

After the US began the deployment in August, Persad-Bissessar also warned that if Venezuela attacks Guyana, a country with which it has a territorial dispute, she would grant the US government access for defense operations. The declaration showed her willingness to abandon a yearslong policy of neutrality and a pragmatic relationship with Venezuela based on economic interests.

In late October, the US Navy destroyer USS Gravely carried out military drills in Trinidad and Tobago for several days, a move that the Venezuelan government called “a hostile provocation.” Maduro responded by announcing the suspension of bilateral gas agreements with the country, claiming its prime minister was threatening to turn Trinidad and Tobago into “the aircraft carrier of the US empire against Venezuela.”

Guyana

Guyana backed the US military deployment in the Caribbean shortly after it started in August, saying it would support a “collaborative and integrated approach to tackle transnational organized crime.”

It added that transnational organized crime was a “threat to peace and security in the region” and involved networks like “the Cartel de los Soles of Venezuela.”

Washington claims Cartel de los Soles is led by Maduro and is responsible for trafficking drugs to the US and Europe. Caracas has dismissed the accusation as a “fabrication.” But experts and former US government officials say the group is not a formally organized cartel, and it’s a stretch to suggest Maduro leads it, though there is government involvement in the drug trade.

The head of US Southern Command Admiral Alvin Holsey visited Guyana this month to promote regional security and met with senior commanders to discuss a long-standing defense alliance between both countries, the US Embassy said.

El Salvador

In early November, an AC-130J military aircraft operated by the US Air Force was spotted in El Salvador’s Comalapa Cooperative Security Base, according to photos and satellite imagery obtained by CNN.

The gunship can carry Hellfire missiles but is primarily armed with large-caliber cannons. The AC-130J seen in El Salvador had two cannons – including a 105mm howitzer – visible its left side.

Until recently, the Salvadoran base had been used almost exclusively for unarmed aircraft, according to the US Southern Command. Its location near the coast provides a strategic position for the US campaign in the Pacific, as the reach of bases in the Caribbean is limited.

“Operating from Comalapa offers more options and allows for monitoring and defending a much wider swath of the Pacific Ocean, through which much of the cocaine trafficked to the United States passes,” Ryan Berg, director of the Americas Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told CNN earlier in November.

Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele has not commented specifically on the US military deployment, but he has a close relationship with US President Donald Trump.

Panama

US military personnel are conducting training exercises in Panama, although the government of President José Raúl Mulino is trying to downplay the matter.

The president denied last week that his country is participating in any “hostile act against Venezuela” and asserted that the military maneuvers are part of bilateral cooperation agreements with Washington.

Panama, which has not had armed forces since 1990, has hosted military exercises since the US invasion of the country in 1989. In April, Panama signed a memorandum of cooperation enabling a greater US military presence and authorizing the use of air and naval bases for joint exercises. Mulino again denied that the activities are related to the White House’s pressure on Venezuela.

Dominican Republic

President Luis Abinader said Monday that the Dominican Republic and the US Drug Enforcement Administration would launch “much more extensive and in-depth” actions in the fight against drug trafficking.

That same day, Dominican authorities said they boarded a speedboat with 806 packages of suspected cocaine off the coast of Pedernales. The National Drug Control Directorate said the intervention was in support of Operation Southern Spear, the name the Pentagon uses for the military deployment in the region.

The collaboration had already begun on Saturday, when authorities seized another shipment of nearly 500 packages of cocaine on a speedboat.

Puerto Rico and other bases

Puerto Rico, a self-governing US territory in the Caribbean, also plays a key role in the deployment, as it contains the most US military bases in the Caribbean.

Satellite imagery and photographs taken in the area show that Roosevelt Roads Naval Station, which had been closed since 2004, is now operational again, and that US Marines supporting the Southern Command missions participated in amphibious landing drills in the archipelago in late September.

The United States has two other bases in and around the Caribbean, but in both cases, the countries where they’re located have spoken out against the deployment.

In southeastern Cuba, the Guantanamo Naval Base has been used for logistical, surveillance, and other operations since 1903, but the Cuban government, an ally of Venezuela, has repeatedly rejected the US military presence as well as its recent deployment.

Washington also has an air base in Honduras staffed by more than 500 US military personnel and 500 Honduran and American civilians, according to its website. In January, before Trump took office, Honduran President Xiomara Castro threatened to reconsider the use of the base if the US carried out mass deportations. In August, she called some of Washington’s accusations against Maduro “unfounded” and later spoke out against the US military deployment in the Caribbean.

Political support

Countries in South America have shown political support for Washington’s pressure campaign on Venezuela.

In August, Ecuador designated Cartel de los Soles as an “organized crime terrorist group.” The decree was signed by President Daniel Noboa, an ally of Washington, whose attempts to lift a ban on foreign military bases was rejected in a recent referendum.

Paraguay and Argentina, other White House allies, have also designated Cartel de los Soles as a terrorist organization.

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CNN’s Michael Rios contributed to this report.