Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced Operation Southern Spear on Thursday, formalizing a military campaign targeting what the administration describes as “narco-terrorists” in the Western Hemisphere, as tensions with Venezuela reach their highest point in decades.
The announcement comes as the USS Gerald R. Ford, the Navy’s newest and most capable aircraft carrier, approaches Venezuelan waters — a scale of American military presence in Latin America unseen in decades, according to regional analysts.
Hegseth said the operation, led by Joint Task Force Southern Spear and US Southern Command, aims to “defend our Homeland, removes narco-terrorists from our Hemisphere, and secures our Homeland from the drugs that are killing our people.” He provided no additional details about the scope or timeline of operations.
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Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Dan Caine briefed President Donald Trump on Wednesday with a range of military options for Venezuela, according to four sources familiar with the matter who spoke to news organizations on condition of anonymity. The briefing included options for strikes on land targets, though no decision has been made, CBS News reported.
Options under consideration reportedly range from air strikes on military facilities and drug trafficking infrastructure to more targeted operations against senior Venezuelan officials. Trump told CBS’ “60 Minutes” recently that he was not considering strikes inside Venezuela, though he had previously sounded open to the idea.
Read: Trump: Land strikes in Venezuela coming soon
US forces have struck approximately 20 vessels in Caribbean and Eastern Pacific waters since September, resulting in more than 80 deaths, according to government figures and news reports. The operations target boats the US says are linked to drug trafficking.
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A Defense Department official told CNN that a strike Monday on a suspected drug smuggling vessel left “no survivors” among four people aboard, marking the 20th such attack.
In July, the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel delivered a classified legal opinion protecting military personnel from prosecution for their involvement in the vessel strikes, The Washington Post reported Wednesday. Senior government lawyers, including Admiral Alvin Holsey, then-head of Southern Command, had raised concerns about the legality of the operations before the opinion arrived.
Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro ordered the mobilization of nearly 200,000 troops this week for exercises designed to prepare for what his government calls an “imperialist threat.” In a Wednesday appearance on state television, Maduro charged that Washington fabricates narratives to justify military action.
“Since they cannot say that we have hidden biological or chemical weapons, they invent a bizarre narrative,” Maduro said.
Venezuelan Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino Lopez called the US military deployment “a vulgar attack against the sovereignty and peace” of the region. Reuters reported that Caracas has begun deploying weapons, including Russian-made equipment, and planning guerrilla-style resistance operations.
The arrival of the Ford, which carries approximately 5,000 sailors and 60 aircraft, including F-18 fighter jets, brings total US military personnel in the region to roughly 15,000.
“This is the anchor of what it means to have US military power once again in Latin America,” said Elizabeth Dickinson, senior analyst for the Andes region at the International Crisis Group. “And it has raised a lot of anxieties in Venezuela but also throughout the region.”
Dickinson questioned the counter-narcotics rationale: “There’s nothing that an aircraft carrier brings that is useful for combating the drug trade.”
Defense analysts noted the carrier creates pressure on the administration to act. Mark Cancian of the Center for Strategic and International Studies said the Ford is “too powerful a capability to just sit in the Caribbean and do nothing,” adding that the administration faces a “use-it-or-lose-it kind of situation.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, speaking Wednesday at a G7 foreign ministers meeting in Canada, said Trump is intent on stopping drug flows by targeting “organized criminal narcoterrorists.” Rubio said the US does not recognize Maduro as Venezuela’s legitimate leader, citing allegations of election fraud.
The Navy originally deployed the carrier to the Mediterranean Sea before Hegseth ordered its relocation to the Caribbean on October 24. As of Thursday, the Ford traveled through the mid-Atlantic, according to a defense official who spoke on condition of anonymity.
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