US missile ship crosses Panama Canal on its way to the Caribbean

The U.S. missile ship USS Lake Erie entered the Panama Canal Friday night from the Pacific bound for the Caribbean, amid a Washington naval deployment near the coast of Venezuela.

The cruise ship passed through the Pedro Miguel lock at around 21H30 local time, AFP reporters observed on the scene, and continued sailing toward the Atlantic on a 50-mile (80-km) crossing lasting about eight hours.

The Lake Erie, with the number 70 painted in white letters on its hull, has been moored for the past two days at a dock in Rodman harbor, at the Pacific entrance to the canal.

These actions are part of the recent U.S. naval deployment in the region, after accusing Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro of heading a drug cartel and raising to $50 million a reward for his capture.

Three U.S. missile launchers plan to position themselves in international waters in the coming days, close to the Venezuelan border, for what Washington claims are operations against international drug trafficking.

How did Caracas respond?

For its part, the Caracas regime announced last Monday the deployment of 15,000 troops of its security forces on the border with Colombia for operations against drug trafficking.

He also announced on Tuesday that his territorial waters would be patrolled with drones and Navy vessels. Maduro claims to have 4.5 million militiamen in response to U.S. threats, though experts doubt that figure.

A series of videos have gone viral on social networks, many of them shared by Venezuela's own pro-government supporters, which ironically question the defensive power of the regime: troops of the elderly, police in drug capture drills and militias practicing martial arts.