The Navy aircraft carrier USS Nimitz is joining other US warships in the Caribbean in a military buildup amid rising tensions between the US and Cuba.
The Nimitz and its destroyer entered the Caribbean on May 20, the same day the Justice Department announced that former Cuban President Raul Castro, 94, had been charged with murder.
Mr. Castro and five other Cuban officials were charged with a 1996 military operation in which Cuban fighter jets shot down two unarmed planes on a humanitarian mission, killing four American civilians.
The naval buildup is similar to what happened near Venezuela in late 2025. The naval buildup ended on January 3, when U.S. special forces captured Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife, Syria Flores.
The Nimitz and its ships join four other U.S. warships in the region, including the amphibious assault ship Iwo Jima, which was used to transport Maduro to New York.
What US Navy ships are in the Caribbean?
Vessels in this region include:
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Could the US attack Cuba?
President Donald Trump has said he does not expect further “escalation” between the United States and Cuba. But as Trump himself has acknowledged, the relationship between his words and actions is not always clear.
For months, the regime has been pressuring Cuba with sanctions and an oil blockade, aiming to secure an agreement that would improve economic conditions and release political prisoners. Last week, CIA Director John Ratcliffe met with Cuban leaders amid concerns about fuel shortages and possible U.S. military action.
On May 21, President Trump said that sending an aircraft carrier to the Caribbean was not intended to be intimidatory, framing the U.S.’s intentions as humanitarian and saying, “We’re going to support them.”
Aerial surveillance flights were conducted ahead of the Nimitz.
The U.S. Air Force and Navy conducted at least 26 flights within 130 miles of Cuba from Feb. 4 to May 12, according to a USA TODAY analysis of Flightradar24 data. Most flights arrive within 60 miles of the country on flight paths consistent with surveillance missions.
Flightradar24 confirmed at least one additional surveillance flight on the night of May 20th and 21st.
The surveillance flight was conducted by an MQ-4C Triton, a U.S. Navy high-altitude unmanned surveillance drone capable of flying 24 hours a day at 50,000 feet.
Locations tracked by Flightradar24 show a different pattern in 2025 compared to 2026 within the same period. While this year’s flight encircles the country and includes a wandering pattern, the 2025 flight will likely just pass by, Flightradar24’s Ian Pechenik told USA TODAY.
How did Raul Castro become Cuba’s leader?
Raul Castro is the younger brother of the late former Cuban president Fidel Castro. After seizing power in 1959, Fidel installed Raul as the country’s top military official for his leadership during the revolutionary activities that led to Batista’s ouster.
Raul rose to the highest rank of army general, a position he held for nearly 50 years.
In 2006, Fidel underwent emergency intestinal surgery and appointed Raúl in his place as acting president of two of Cuba’s three governing bodies: the Council of State and the Council of Ministers. A year later, Raul also became acting leader of the third ruling party, the Cuban Communist Party.
By 2008, Fidel decided that his failing health made it impossible for him to serve another term. He announced that Raul would officially lead the country from 2011.
Raúl resigned as president in 2018 but retained significant power within Cuba’s Communist Party, military and state institutions, according to Reuters. Miguel Díaz-Canel was appointed president and was widely thought, and still is, to answer to Castro.
Why was Raul Castro indicted?
On February 24, 1996, a Cuban jet shot down two civilian planes operated by the exile group Brothers to the Rescue. The unarmed plane was shot down by a Cuban Air Force MIG fighter jet while patrolling the Florida Strait looking for endangered Cuban rafters that were attempting to reach U.S. shores.
Fidel Castro claimed that the plane had violated Cuban airspace.
Congress would later conclude that Brothers to the Rescue was “flying an unarmed, unprotected aircraft on the same mission as the hundreds it has flown since 1991 and posed no threat to the Cuban government, the Cuban military, or the Cuban people.”
The incident has become one of the most politically charged issues in modern U.S.-Cuba relations. Some U.S. officials are still pursuing criminal charges three decades later.
The potential prosecution of Cuban officials gained new momentum this year after President Trump ordered the seizure of Maduro. Since then, President Trump has warned that Cuba is next and hinted at the possibility of military action.
What is U.S. Southern Command?
Troops in the region are part of U.S. Southern Command, one of the Department of the Army’s 11 combatant commands, officially known as the Department of Defense.
The Southern Command is the main U.S. military presence in the Western Hemisphere south of Mexico. It handles naval, air, and army missions ranging from drug interdiction to disaster response. It covers 31 countries and has approximately 15 million square miles of land and water.
Contributed by Mike Snider, Kim Hjelmgaard, Rick Jervis, Francesca Chambers, Josh Meyer, Drew Pittock
SOURCE USA TODAY NETWORK REPORTS AND INVESTIGATIONS. Reuters; U.S. Naval Institute; Council on Foreign Relations
