By Phil Stewart, Idrees Ali and Patricia Zengerle
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and the top U.S. general Dan Caine made a surprise visit to Puerto Rico on Monday, the first trip there by senior Pentagon officials since the start of a military buildup in the Caribbean that has escalated tensions with Venezuela.
Hegseth and Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, were seen being received by Puerto Rico’s governor, Jenniffer Gonzalez, in photographs she posted to social media site X.
U.S. President Donald Trump has ordered the Department of Defense to rename itself the Department of War, a change that will require action by Congress. The new name would apply to Hegseth as well, altering his title to “Secretary of War.”
The Pentagon posted a video of Hegseth arriving on the ship USS Iwo Jima, which is anchored right off the coast of Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory located north of Caracas in the Caribbean.
“We thank @POTUS Trump and his 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,” Gonzalez, a Republican, wrote on X.
Trump has long accused Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro of narco trafficking, allegations Caracas has always denied.
The Trump administration has ordered the deployment of 10 F-35 fighter jets to a Puerto Rico airfield to conduct operations against drug cartels, sources told Reuters on Friday.
That deployment comes on top of an already bristling U.S. military presence in the southern Caribbean, which the Trump administration says carries out a campaign pledge to crack down on groups funneling drugs into the United States.
Last week a U.S. military strike in the Caribbean killed 11 people and sank a boat from Venezuela that Trump said was transporting illegal narcotics.
Members of the U.S. Congress have asked for the legal rationale for the deadly strike, noting that the administration has yet to say how it knew who was in the boat or what it was carrying. Administration officials had agreed to provide a classified briefing for congressional staff on Friday, but the meeting was abruptly rescheduled for Tuesday.
“There is no way on God’s green earth you can say that whatever was in this boat presented any sort of imminent threat to the United States in a military sense of the word,” Representative Adam Smith, of Washington, the top Democrat on the House of Representatives Armed Services Committee, said.
“… Are we going to use the United States military to get into a war with drug traffickers, and what are the consequences of that?” Smith asked at a Rules committee meeting on an annual defense policy bill.
Venezuelan officials also criticized the Trump administration’s actions.
“How can there be a drug cartel if there’s no drugs here?” Venezuelan vice president Delcy Rodriguez said during a Monday press conference in Caracas, referencing figures she said show Venezuela does not produce cocaine and that the drug is largely smuggled via routes on the Pacific. “They need to fix their GPS.”
The Pacific Ocean is a bigger route than the Caribbean for maritime trafficking of cocaine, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime said in its 2023 Global Report on Cocaine, citing figures from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration that show 74% of cocaine exported from South America is trafficked over the Pacific.
Maduro’s government has said a video posted by Trump of the strike is artificial intelligence and Maduro has alleged the U.S. military is hoping to drive him from power.
Trump last week played down speculation that he is pursuing regime change in Venezuela.
The Pentagon accused Venezuela of a “highly provocative” flight on Thursday by fighter jets near a U.S. Navy warship. The Venezuelan government has not responded to repeated requests for comment on the fly-over.
Hegseth and Caine are visiting Puerto Rico as U.S. Marines and sailors from the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit carry out amphibious training and flight operations in military drills in the southern part of the island.
(Reporting by Phil Stewart and Idrees Ali; Editing by Nia Williams)
