USS Nimitz Deployment to Caribbean Comes as Cuba Tensions Surge

Newsmax Wires

The U.S. aircraft carrier USS Nimitz and its strike group have arrived in the Caribbean this week as tensions with Cuba escalate and President Trump has raised the prospect of potential military action against the island, according to initial reporting by The Hill.

The Nimitz-class carrier is operating alongside its air wing — including F/A-18E Super Hornets, EA-18G Growlers and C-2A Greyhounds — as well as the USS Gridley, an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer, and the USNS Patuxent, a Henry J. Kaiser-class replenishment oiler, according to U.S. Southern Command, which oversees military operations in the region.

“USS Nimitz has proven its combat prowess across the globe, ensuring stability and defending democracy from the Taiwan Strait to the Arabian Gulf,” Southcom said on X.

The Nimitz, commissioned in 1975, had been conducting joint exercises with the Brazilian Navy off Rio de Janeiro last week, the U.S. Embassy in Brazil said.

Trump told reporters Wednesday that Cuba is “on our mind,” following a Justice Department indictment of former Cuban President Raúl Castro on murder-related charges tied to the 1996 shootdown of two civilian aircraft over international waters that killed four people.

“It’s very important,” Trump said. “It was a very big moment for people, not only Cuban Americans, but people who came from Cuba, that want to go back to Cuba, see their family in Cuba.”

The indictment was announced on Cuba’s Independence Day. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, in a rare Spanish-language message to Cubans, marked the occasion by defending U.S. sanctions and blaming the island’s ongoing power outages on the communist government.

CIA Director John Ratcliffe also met with Cuban officials on the island last week, signaling that Washington’s timeline for talks would not remain open-ended, according to officials familiar with the meeting.