It is the biggest show of US military power in the Caribbean in decades: a naval task force capable of unleashing hundreds of Tomahawk missiles, squads of helicopter-borne special forces and waves of air strikes. 

President Donald Trump’s show of military power, deployed to wage war on cartels smuggling drugs by boat into the US, is also exerting pressure on Venezuela, a key regional ally of China and Russia. But the spectacle also points to a more fundamental shift in US foreign policy, analysts say, as Trump seeks to place the US at the centre of the western hemisphere.

“This is America reshaping and refocusing its resources to establish a safer neighbourhood for itself and its partners,” says one Trump administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity. “It’s a recommitment of resources to our backyard.”