Pressure on Cuba: the American aircraft carrier Nimitz has arrived in the Caribbean.

The American aircraft carrier USS Nimitz and its carrier group have arrived in the Caribbean this week as tensions between the United States and Cuba escalate, and President Trump has threatened to invade the island, as reported on Wednesday, May 20, by The Hill. This deployment, The Nation notes, “comes on the same day that the Trump administration announced criminal charges against former Cuban President Raúl Castro,” who is now 94 years old. He, who was the defense minister at the time, faces seven charges related to the deaths of three Americans and a Cuban resident in February 1996 when their planes were shot down by Cuban MiGs.

The Nimitz, as specified by The New York Times, has been ordered to “stay in the area for at least a few days.” The journal adds that for now, it is more of “a show of force” by the American authorities than an intention to use the aircraft carrier and its carrier group as “a platform for major military operations, as the aircraft carrier Gerald Ford did in the commando raid aimed at capturing the Venezuelan President, Nicolás Maduro, in January.”

“An eye in the sky”

In an effort to exert maximum pressure on the Castro regime, the U.S. military has made public, on flight tracking sites, surveillance flights conducted near Cuba, reported by the BBC on Thursday, May 21. The scheduling of flight transponders is “undoubtedly deliberate,” according to Steve Wright, a British drone expert. He believes the United States intends to send “a clear message to maintain pressure: they have eyes in the sky.”

Based on flights displayed on the Flightradar24 site, the BBC explains that “at least five P-8A Poseidon surveillance aircraft of the U.S. Navy and three MQ-4C Triton surveillance drones have been operating in the Caribbean near Cuba since May 11.” The British media outlet adds that “some aircraft were flying only 80 kilometers from the island.” The P8 even allegedly flew over Havana before returning to its base in Jacksonville, Florida.

In recent weeks, as The Nation recalls, “Donald Trump has repeatedly stated that Cuba would be the next target after the military operation against Iran and claimed that this communist island nation would fall ‘soon’.” Last week, The Hill added that “CIA Director John Ratcliffe traveled to Cuba, where he met with leaders and informed them that the timeline for negotiations will not be open indefinitely.”