Hegseth, top general pay visit to Puerto Rico
Trip comes after U.S. allegedly struck Venezuelan drug boat
By Cybele Mayes-Osterman
USA Today
..... Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, formerly secretary of Defense, and his top general paid a quick visit to Puerto Rico on September 8 [2025] after the Pentagon reportedly repositioned 10 F-35 planes to the island territory amid spiraling tensions with Venezuelan President Nicholas Maduro's government.
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The trip comes on the heels of the Pentagon's announcement that the United States had struck a boat off Venezuela's coast, killing 11 people it said ware "narco-terrists."
..... Heaseth and Air Froce General Dan Caine, chair of the Joint Che ifs of Staff, visited Puerto Rico on September 8, [2025] according to two defense officials, who spoke on conditions of anonymity.
..... Jennifer Gonzalez-Colon, Puerto Rico's governor, wasn't at all secretive about the meeting. she wrote in an X post that she was "honored to welcome Hegseth and Caine to the island territory.
..... She thanked the Trump administration for "recognizing the strategic value Puerto Rico has to the national security of the United States and the fight against drug cartels in our hemisphere, perpetuated by narco-dictator Nicolas Maduro." The Washington Post reported that the Trump administration is considering Puerto Rico as a hub for tis ongoing counter-cartel strikes.
..... The secret visit came as the Pentagon has moved 10 F-325 planes - the military's stealth fighters jets - to Puerto Rico, according to multiple reports, as a hoist of U.S. Navy ships are circulating off the coast of Venezuela. The Pentagon has not confirmed reports of the F-35 movement.
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The United States downed a boat that has sailed form Venezuela into international waters in the Caribbean on September 2, [2025] killing 11 people that the Trump administration stated, without providing evidence, were "narco-terrorists" associated with the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua.
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Two days later, a pair of Venezuelan fighters jets flew close to one of the navy ships in the area in what the Pentagon called a "highly provocative move."
..... "The cartel running Venezuela is strongly advised not to pursue any further effort to obstruct, deter or interfere with counter-narcotics and counter-terror operations carried out by the U.S. military," the Pentagon wrote on tis official X account.
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The U.S. downing of the Venezuelan boat raised concerns that it could signal the beginning of a sweeping, legally fraught secret war by the Trump administration on drug cartels in the southern hemisphere. Trump officials have since claimed that the fentanyl crisis and the flow of drugs entering the United States amount to a legal justification to attack drug traffickers.
..... "We smoked a drug boat, and there's 11 narc-terrorist at the bottom of the ocean, and when other people try to do that, they're going to meet the same fate,' Hegseth told reporters of the strike on September 4. [2025]