Secretary of War Pete Hegseth warns that US troops are conducting a real exercise in the Caribbean
Make no mistake; what you are doing right now is not training. This is a real exercise, said Secretary of War Pete Hegseth.
US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth harangued troops aboard a military ship deployed in the Caribbean on Monday as part of Washington’s controversial operation to combat drug trafficking from Venezuela, insisting that they are not participating in “training,” but in “a real exercise.”
“Make no mistake; what you are doing right now is not training. This is a real exercise in the name of the vital national interests of the United States of America: ending the poisoning of the American people,” Hegseth explained in a video shared on social media by the War Department and taken aboard the USS Iwo Jima.
This amphibious assault ship is currently deployed off the southern coast of Puerto Rico, a U.S. commonwealth that Hegseth visited today, whose title has been changed from Secretary of Defense to Secretary of War as a result of an executive order signed last Friday by President Donald Trump.
“How are we doing, warriors!?” exclaims the secretary at the beginning of his speech, in which he refers to the USS Iwo Jima as “a floating island of American power on the front line of defense of the American homeland.”
Fighting Drug Trafficking
Since the end of August, the U.S. has deployed eight military vessels and a nuclear-powered submarine in areas of the Caribbean Sea under the pretext of combating drug trafficking that it claims “contaminates” the streets of the North American country.
The operation last Tuesday destroyed a boat that according to Washington belonged to the Tren de Aragua gang and had left Venezuela with narcotics on board.
Caracas, which accuses Washington of wanting to force a change of government in Venezuela, has mobilized ships and millions of militiamen, and has also urged the UN and the international community in general to speak out.
For its part,Hegseth also appeared today at the Muniz Air Base in Puerto Rico (where US F-35 fighter jets are expected to be deployed soon) accompanied by the local governor, Jenniffer Gonzalez, at a time when some voices on the island are demanding that the territory not be "remilitarized."