The United States has carried out its 20th attack on ships in the Caribbean and Pacific Ocean, killing four people and reportedly leaving “no survivors.”
Published November 14, 2025
U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth formally announced the start of a U.S. military operation targeting so-called “narco-terrorists” as Washington continues to build up a massive military, warship and fighter jet presence in Latin America.
“Today, I am announcing Operation Southern Spear. This mission, led by Joint Task Force Southern Spear and @SOUTHCOM, will protect our homeland, rid the hemisphere of narco-terrorists, and protect our homeland from the drugs that are killing our people,” Hegseth said in a post on X.
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“The Western Hemisphere is America’s neighborhood and we will protect it,” he said.
SOUTHCOM is an acronym for US Southern Command, whose mission spans 31 countries in South America, Central America, and the Caribbean.
Southcom said in a social media post that U.S. Marines are conducting artillery training aboard the amphibious assault ship Iwo Jima in the Caribbean in support of U.S. President Donald Trump’s “priorities of stopping illegal drug trafficking and protecting our homeland.”
#Preparation status:
US Marines from @22nd_MEU conduct artillery training on Iwo Jima. U.S. troops are deployed to the Caribbean in support of the #SOUTHCOM mission, @DeptofWar-led operations, and the @POTUS priority of interdicting and protecting illegal drug trafficking… pic.twitter.com/kLaxdHcNKq— U.S. Southern Command (@Southcom) November 13, 2025
Hegseth’s announcement late Thursday followed reports that the U.S. military carried out its 20th attack on ships in the Caribbean and Pacific Ocean earlier this week, killing four people.
US broadcaster CNN quoted an unnamed US Pentagon official as saying there were “no survivors” of Monday’s attack on a suspected drug smuggling vessel.
This attack is the latest reported targeting people on boats in the Caribbean and Pacific Ocean. The United States claims it is targeting drug smuggling, but has so far offered no evidence or legal justification to launch the deadly attack, which has killed about 80 people.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday responded to criticism of the U.S. attack by G7 allies, saying European countries do not decide how the United States protects its national security.
Largest U.S. military buildup in Latin America in generations
The naming of Operation Southern Spear comes as America’s state-of-the-art aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R. Ford, is expected to arrive off the coast of Venezuela in the coming days, in what is being described as an extraordinary display of American military power not seen in South America for generations.
The carrier’s arrival adds to an already large buildup of U.S. military, naval and air power, said to be part of President Trump’s targeting of Latin American drug lords and widely seen as an effort to oust Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.
Speaking on Venezuelan state television on Wednesday, President Maduro accused the United States of fabricating a false story to justify attacks on ships in nearby waters and threaten his country.
“They can’t say they have biological or chemical weapons hidden away, so they make up strange stories,” said Maduro, who Washington accuses of drug trafficking.
Some 200,000 troops have been mobilized for a two-day exercise to strengthen Venezuela’s response to the “imperialist threat” posed by the growing US military presence in the region, the country’s Defense Ministry said earlier this week.
Venezuelan Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino López said late Tuesday that the deployment of U.S. troops to the Caribbean was a “despicable attack on the sovereignty and peace” not only of Venezuela but of the entire region.
Elizabeth Dickinson, senior analyst for the Andean region at International Crisis Group, told The Associated Press that “there is nothing an aircraft carrier can carry that would help combat drug trafficking” in the region.
“I think this is clearly a message aimed at putting pressure on Caracas,” Dickinson said.
