Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced Thursday the start of a U.S. military operation to “expel narcoterrorists” from the Western Hemisphere.
In a message on
“Led by the Joint Task Force Lanza del Sur and the Southern Command, this mission defends our homeland, expels narco-terrorists from our hemisphere and protects our homeland from the drugs that are killing our people. The Western Hemisphere is the United States’ neighbor and we will protect it,” he assured, without providing further details.
Hegseth’s announcement comes just three days after the arrival of the Gerald Ford aircraft carrier, the largest in the world and the most modern in the U.S. fleet, in the U.S. Southern Command’s area of responsibility in Latin America and the Caribbean. The ship and its escort group join the flotilla already deployed in international waters on the edge of Venezuela’s territorial waters.
On Wednesday, Hegseth and Chief of Staff Dan Caine had conducted the weekly intelligence briefing that the president of the United States receives every Wednesday. In it they explained to Trump the different options of the military campaign he has been carrying out since September 2 against alleged drug traffickers.
This Thursday, Pentagon officials reported a new attack in the Caribbean against an alleged drug trafficker. This is the twentieth since the campaign of extrajudicial operations began in September. In them, the US military killed 80 civilians
(Latest news. There will be an update soon)
