Something is going in the southern Caribbean. The world’s largest aircraft carrier - the American USS Gerald R Ford- is on its way to the region. Small boats said to belong to Venezuelan drug smugglers are being blown up by the US military. Old US bases are being de-mothballed. And there’s media talk of Trump-induced regime change in Caracas, with Venezuela’s authoritarian, leftist president Nicolas Maduro in the crosshairs. In this week's Briefing Room, David Aaronovitch and guests ask what this military show of strength is really about and what it mean for the region?

Guests:

Will Grant, BBC Mexico, Central America and Cuba Correspondent.
Jeremy McDermott, co-founder and co-director of InSight Crime, a Colombia-based think tank that studies organised crime in the Americas.
Dr Christopher Sabatini, Senior Fellow for Latin America at Chatham House
Dr Annette Idler, Associate Professor in Global Security at the Blavatnik School of Government at the University of Oxford.

Presenter: David Aaronovitch
Producers: Caroline Bayley, Kirsteen Knight and Cordelia Hemming
Production co-ordinator: Maria Ogundele
Sound Engineer: Gareth Jones
Editor: Richard Vadon