The United States Secretary of War traveled to the Caribbean island this Monday
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The United States Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, and the Air Force General and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Dan Caine, traveled to Puerto Rico on Monday amid the intensification of U.S. military operations against narcoterrorist cartels in the Caribbean.
During the visit, Hegseth toured the USS Iwo Jima, one of the assault ships deployed in the region. There, he addressed the marines stationed on the vessel: "I believe this could be the most beautiful image I have ever seen in my life. Looking at these faces, looking at this Caribbean, on a floating island of American power, on the front line of the defense of the American homeland."
"Make no mistake, what you are doing right now is not training. This is a real exercise on behalf of the vital national interest of the United States of America: ending the poisoning of the American people," he warned.
The arrival of the high-ranking officials in Puerto Rico took place just a few days after U.S. ships transported hundreds of marines to the territory, as part of maneuvers scheduled for more than a year, according to Siul López, spokesperson for the Puerto Rico National Guard.
Caza F-35
Additionally, Hegseth and Caine held meetings with authorities at the Muñiz Air National Guard Base, belonging to the 156th Wing in Carolina, east of San Juan, with the aim of strengthening military training activities in the region.
As part of this strategy, the Pentagon plans to soon deploy ten F-35 fighter jets on the Caribbean island to strengthen operations against drug trafficking. This measure, which has not yet been publicly announced, responds to President Donald Trump's policy of reinforcing national security and fulfilling his campaign commitments regarding the fight against the cartels in the Western Hemisphere.
The message from the Government of Puerto Rico
"The Government of Puerto Rico is committed to this fight against drug trafficking. We are going to continue seeing these maneuvers, we are going to see the presence of much of this equipment in Puerto Rico," stated Governor Jenniffer González at a press conference.
According to González, the arrival of troops and equipment constitutes "a direct message to the cartel leader in Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, that the United States will not let him get away with anything else."
Cazas F-35
When asked about the magnitude of the operations, the governor explained that neither the duration of the maneuvers nor the exact number of personnel who will participate has been defined yet: "They keep arriving, there is no defined number," she indicated.
"This has just begun, the repositioning on the island of military force to attack drug trafficking throughout the entire Caribbean jurisdiction. Puerto Rico is the border of the United States in the Caribbean due to its proximity to Venezuela and Colombia," she emphasized.
In that context, she celebrated that President Donald Trump "has allocated federal government resources to directly tackle drug trafficking." Finally, she highlighted that "the possibility of Puerto Rico becoming the operations and logistics center for the United States toward South America, thanks to its geographic location, returns us to a place of strategic relevance."
