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Secretary of War Pete Hegseth announced the launch of Operation Southern Spear, which he said aims to protect the Western Hemisphere from "narco-terrorists."
The announcement comes months after U.S. Navy SEALs raided suspected drug-trafficking vessels in the Caribbean, many of which, according to the Pentagon, were suspected of sailing from the coast of Venezuela. Hegseth announced the operation in a post on Twitter, noting that President Donald Trump ordered the action.
"Led by Joint Task Force Southern Spear and @SOUTHCOM, this mission protects our homeland, removes narco-terrorists from our Hemisphere, and secures our homeland from the drugs that are killing our people. The Western Hemisphere is America's neighborhood, and we will defend it," Hegseth said.
Hegseth's announcement of the operation comes after the arrival of the Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier strike group in the Caribbean, as the Pentagon bolsters its military presence in the region.
Venezuela has begun organizing its defense forces, with Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino López announcing this week that “the country’s entire military arsenal” is “at full operational readiness.”
The Pentagon referred Hegseth's X post to the Washington Examiner in response to requests for comment on further information about Operation Southern Spear.
The Pentagon also cited SOUTHCOM's October 10 press release on the creation of the Joint Task Force, which Hegseth said will lead Operation Southern Spear.
“This is primarily a maritime effort, and our team will utilize maritime patrols, aerial surveillance, precision interdictions, and intelligence sharing to combat illicit trafficking, support the rule of law, and ultimately better protect vulnerable communities here at home,” said Lt. Gen. Calvert Worth, the JTF’s designated commander, in the October announcement.
In late January, the Navy announced an “Operation Southern Spear” in SOUTHCOM’s area of responsibility.
The deployment of the operation was “to help determine combinations of unmanned vehicles and manned forces to provide coordinated awareness in the maritime domain and conduct counternarcotics operations,” according to a January press release.
“Southern Spear will deploy a heterogeneous mix of Robotic and Autonomous Systems (RAS) to support the detection and monitoring of illicit trafficking, while drawing lessons for other theaters of operations,” Commander Foster Edwards, director of hybrid operations for the U.S. 4th Fleet, said in a statement in January.
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