A U.S. guided-missile cruiser, USS Lake Erie, was seen crossing the Panama Canal from the Pacific to the Caribbean on Friday night, after the Trump administration deployed warships near the coast of Venezuela.

AFP journalists saw the naval vessel passing through one of the canal's locks at around 9:30 pm and navigating east toward the Atlantic.

The United States has said the deployment of warships to the southern Caribbean, near Venezuela's territorial waters, was an anti-drug trafficking operation.

"I didn't know the ship was going to pass... I was surprised," Alfredo Cedeno, a 32-year-old health technician, who took photos of the cruiser, told AFP.

A woman takes pictures as the U.S. Navy warship USS Lake Erie (CG 70) crosses the Pedro Miguel Locks of the Panama Canal amid a U.S.

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