There are now around 10,000 U.S. forces supporting counternarcotics operations in the Caribbean, a Pentagon official told The Hill on Thursday, a substantial military buildup as the Trump administration ramps up its campaign against Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.
The majority of service members in the region are based in Puerto Rico, while Marines in the area are on ships. The Navy has eight ships in the Caribbean, along with one submarine.
The Hill has reached out to U.S. Southern Command (Southcom) for comment.
The ramped-up military presence in the Caribbean Sea comes as the U.S. military has conducted five strikes against boats off the coast of Venezuela, which the administration said were smuggling drugs, killing 27 people.
On Wednesday, President Trump appeared to confirm that he authorized the CIA to conduct operations in Venezuela, escalating the U.S. campaign against Maduro, an authoritarian leader.
The president was asked in the Oval Office why he authorized the CIA to be able to strike inside Venezuela. Trump seemed to confirm the authorization and said he was looking to expand to “land” strikes against drug cartels.
“I authorized for two reasons really, number one they have emptied their prisons into the United States of America, they came in through the border,” Trump said on Wednesday.
“A lot of drugs coming in from Venezuela, and a lot of drugs come in through the sea, but we’re going to stop them by land also,” he added.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said last week that the Department of Defense (DOD) is forming a new counternarcotics joint task force to “crush” drug cartels, which would operate in the Southcom area of responsibility.
The latest U.S. military strike against boats allegedly smuggling drugs took place Tuesday morning. Trump said the kinetic strike struck a vessel affiliated with a designated terrorist organization, killing six alleged “narcoterrorists.”
The mother of a fisherman in Trinidad and Tobago, Lenore Burnley, told the Miami Herald on Thursday that her son, Chad “Charpo” Joseph, was one of the six people killed in the U.S. military strike, which was conducted Tuesday morning off the coast of Venezuela.
Burnley told the news outlet she learned about her son’s death after “somebody called us.”
The Hill has reached out to the office of the president of Trinidad and Tobago, Christine Carla Kangaloo.
When asked on Thursday if Trump believes that Maduro’s “days are numbered,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters the president “believes” that Maduro is an “illegitimate president leading an illegitimate regime that has been trafficking drugs” to the U.S. “for far too long.”
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