âť“WHAT HAPPENED: General Dan Caine, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, visited American troops in Puerto Rico and aboard a U.S. Navy warship currently deployed to the Caribbean amidst a U.S. military buildup in the region.
👤WHO WAS INVOLVED: Gen. Dan Caine, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, and senior enlisted adviser David L. Isom.
đź“ŤWHEN & WHERE: Monday in Puerto Rico and on a Navy warship in the region, following a September visit by Caine and Hegseth to the area.
đź’¬KEY QUOTE: Gen. Caine is currently in the Caribbean to “engage with service members and thank them for their outstanding support to regional missions,” according to his office.
🎯IMPACT: The U.S. military presence and actions in the region aim to combat drug trafficking and pressure Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro to step down after he, in the eyes of many, lost the country’s last national election.
President Donald J. Trump‘s Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Dan Caine, visited American troops in Puerto Rico and aboard a U.S. Navy warship in the Caribbean on Monday, as the U.S. continues to bolster its military presence in the region. This visit marks Caine’s second to the area since the buildup began, which includes the deployment of the USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier, the largest warship ever built.
Caine, accompanied by senior enlisted adviser David L. Isom, traveled to the Caribbean to “engage with service members and thank them for their outstanding support to regional missions,” according to his office. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth joined Caine in September for a prior visit to Puerto Rico, where hundreds of U.S. Marines had arrived for what officials described as a training exercise.
Hegseth described the Marines as being “on the front lines of defending the American homeland.” The military buildup, which includes kinetic military strikes on drug-smuggling boats, has resulted in the deaths of more than 80 narco-terrorists across 21 vessels. These actions are seen as part of an effort to cut off Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro’s illicit source of drug revenue and force the Marxist strongman to resign.
The Trump administration has also designated the Cartel de los Soles, a group allegedly led by Maduro, as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO). This designation, traditionally reserved for groups such as the Islamic State or al-Qaida, was applied earlier this year to eight Latin American criminal organizations involved in drug trafficking and other illicit activities.
Notably, the designation for the Cartel de los Soles took effect on Monday. Secretary Hegseth stated that the designation opens up a “whole bunch of new options to the United States” for dealing with Maduro, though he declined to elaborate on specific strategies or whether strikes on land targets in Venezuela were being considered. “So nothing is off the table, but nothing’s automatically on the table,” he added.
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