The Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, announced this Thursday the beginning of a US military operation to “expel narcoterrorists” from the Western Hemisphere.
In a message on X, the old Twitter, the Pentagon chief explains: “President Trump ordered us to act, and the War Department is complying. Today I announce Operation Southern Lance.”
Hegseth does not specify what exactly he is referring to, although it is deduced that it gives its name to the campaign of extrajudicial military attacks by United States forces against alleged drug traffickers in the Caribbean and the Pacific.
“Led by Joint Task Force Lanza del Sur and Southern Command, this mission defends our homeland, expels narco-terrorists from our hemisphere and protects our homeland from the drugs that are killing our people. The Western Hemisphere is the neighborhood of the United States, and we will protect it,” he assured, without giving further details.
Hegseth’s announcement comes just three days after the arrival of the Gerald Ford aircraft carrier, the largest in the world and the most modern in the US fleet, to the area of responsibility of the US Southern Command in Latin America and the Caribbean. The ship and its escort group join the flotilla that is already deployed in international waters at the limit of Venezuela’s territorial waters.
His arrival had precipitated speculation that Trump could order the beginning of a new phase in the military campaign, and that it could include direct attacks against targets in Venezuelan territory.
This Thursday, Pentagon officials reported a new attack in the Caribbean against an alleged drug boat. This is the twentieth since the start of the extrajudicial operations campaign in September. In them, the US Army has murdered 80 civilians.
On Wednesday, Hegseth and Chief of Staff Dan Caine had headed the weekly intelligence briefing that the US president receives every Wednesday. In it they had explained to Trump the different options in the military campaign.
The United States Government insists that the objective of the campaign is the fight against drug trafficking that kills tens of thousands of people in its territory every year. But numerous experts, and the president of Venezuela himself, Nicolás Maduro, consider that the true objective of the operation is to force a regime change in the Caribbean country.
In statements to CNN during a speech on the street, the Venezuelan president had sent a message to the American people: “let us unite for peace on the continent. No more endless wars. No more unjust wars. No more Libya, no more Afghanistan.” Asked by the journalist if he had any direct message to send to Trump, Maduro answered: “yes, peace.”
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