An eighth US Navy vessel arrived in the Caribbean this week as part of President Donald Trump's push to combat maritime drug trafficking and cartel activity with military force. USS Stockdale, an Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer, joins seven other American vessels in the waters of US Southern Command. Among the deployed warships are the destroyers USS Jason Dunham and USS Gravely, USS Lake Erie, a missile cruiser, and USS Minneapolis-Saint Paul, a littoral combat ship.
The multi-domain activity, which will commence in the coming days and continue for an undisclosed amount of time, is in response to ongoing airspace violations, including the numerous Russian drones that violated Poland's airspace on September 10," NATO said in a statement.
As tensions with the United States grow over the U.S. armed fleet deployed in the Caribbean Sea near Venezuelan territory, the Venezuelan regime is making a special effort to publicize in detail its anti-narcotics operations in the country's border and coastal areas, carried out by the Armed Forces and security agencies. Venezuela's narrative about responsibility in the fight against drug trafficking much more frequent now is accompanied by a vigorous nationalist
The US attack on the Venezuelan boat on Tuesday came just a few days after news reports circulated about US warships advancing into Venezuelan waters. Last month, The New York Times reported that Trump had signed a secret directive instructing the Pentagon to use military force against certain Latin American drug cartels designated by the US as foreign terrorist organisations.
We have, in the past, supported Israel when there have been missiles coming in. I'm not going to comment on what might happen in the future, but so far, we haven't been involved, and we're sending in assets to both protect ourselves and also potentially to support our allies.
Yes, there was some violence directed at federal law enforcement, but that's not uncommon. And if we called in the National Guard, every time there were minor outbreaks of violence, we would be living in a police state.
Baldwin pressed Hegseth for specific legal authority related to deploying Marines, emphasizing the need for constitutional justification for using federal troops in California.