US to announce deployment of military hospital ship to Venezuela

As tensions with Venezuela mount, the United States is planning to announce on Tuesday the deployment of a military hospital ship to the region, U.S. officials say, in the latest sign of the Pentagon's limited, and targeted, involvement in the crisis. The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, did not specify which countries in the region the ship would travel to. Last year, the USNS Comfort hospital ship cared for Venezuelan refugees and others as it stopped in Colombia, Peru, Ecuador and Honduras. The U.S. military's Southern Command, which oversees U.S. forces in Latin America, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 

(With inputs from agencies.)