WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has named Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro as among those leaders who are helping to poison the American people by trafficking narcotics to the country.
While interacting with U.S. troops in the Caribbean region, Hegseth said that the War Department knows who the traffickers are, what illegal substances they are trafficking, the routes they take, and who their leaders are - including Nicolás Maduro, the president of Venezuela.
'What we have declared - and we are [currently] declaring - is that, in international waters, we are not going to tolerate narco-terrorists who are poisoning the American people,' Hegseth told a gathering of Air National Guardsmen at Muniz Air National Guard Base, just outside of San Juan, Puerto Rico.
The visit came amid the deployment of various U.S. Navy vessels to the region, and just under one week since U.S. Southern Command forces conducted a kinetic strike in the Caribbean Sea against positively identified members of the Tren de Aragua narco-terrorism organization, resulting in 11 terrorists killed.
'There are 11 narco-terrorists at the bottom of the Caribbean [Sea] right now who found out, at the hands of American power, that you will not be poisoning the American people anymore,' Hegseth told a large crowd of sailors during an afloat visit to the Wasp-class amphibious assault ship USS Iwo Jima.
During both the Air National Guard and Navy troop visits, Hegseth emphasized the importance of the service members' contribution to the mission of protecting the homeland.
President Donald Trump signed an executive order on January 20, designating cartels and other organizations as foreign terrorist organizations and specially designated global terrorists, thus authorizing the military to engage any perceived threats from such entities.
More than 82,000 Americans suffered drug-related deaths in 2024, as per the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The secretary was joined on the trip by Air Force Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
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