About 10,000 U.S. troops are now supporting anti-narcotics operations in the Caribbean region, a Pentagon official told The Hill on Thursday, a major troop buildup as the Trump administration ramps up its campaign against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.
The majority of service members in the region are based in Puerto Rico, while aboard naval ships in the region. The Navy has eight ships in the Caribbean, as well as one submarine.
Hill has contacted US Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) for comment.
The increased military presence in the Caribbean Sea comes as the US military launched five attacks against boats off the Venezuelan coast that authorities say were smuggling drugs, killing 27 people.
On Wednesday, President Trump appeared to confirm He authorized the CIA to conduct operations in Venezuela, intensifying the US campaign against Maduro, an authoritarian leader.
The President was asked in the Oval Office why he authorized the CIA to attack inside Venezuela. Trump confirmed the authorization and said he was looking to expand “ground” attacks against drug cartels.
“I’ve actually allowed that for two reasons, first, they’ve emptied their prisons into the United States, they’ve come through the border,” Trump said Wednesday.
“There are a lot of drugs coming from Venezuela and a lot of drugs are also coming through the sea route, but we are also going to stop them through the land route,” he said.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said last week The Department of Defense (DOD) is forming a new counter-narcotics joint task force to “crush” drug cartels, which will operate in the SOUTHCOM area of ​​responsibility.
The latest US military strike against alleged drug-smuggling boats took place on Tuesday morning. trump kinetic strike said A ship affiliated with a designated terrorist organization was attacked, killing six alleged “narco-terrorists”.
Lenore Burnley, mother of a fisherman in Trinidad and Tobago told the Miami Herald Thursday that his son, Chad “Charpo” Joseph, was one of six people killed in a U.S. military strike off the Venezuelan coast Tuesday morning.
Burnley told the news outlet that she learned of her son’s death when “someone called us.”
Hill has reached out to the office of Christine Carla Kangaloo, President of Trinidad and Tobago.
Asked Thursday whether Trump believed Maduro’s “days are numbered,” White House press secretary Carolyn Leavitt told reporters that the president “believes” Maduro is an “illegitimate president who is leading an illegitimate regime that has been trafficking drugs into the United States for too long.”
