U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth made an unannounced visit to Puerto Rico yesterday, Monday, where Washington deployed additional military assets as part of what it calls operations to combat drug trafficking through the Caribbean.

The head of the US Pentagon even rode aboard one of the warships – the landing ship USS Iwo Jima – recently deployed to the region, video uploaded to X by his services at the Department of Defense attests.

The short video shows the minister, in military fatigues, addressing the passengers, telling them they are doing their part to “stop the poisoning of the American people” with drugs.

Secretary Hegceth, accompanied by the chief of the National Defense Staff, General Dan Kane, was received on the Caribbean island, a US territory with special status, by Governor Jennifer Gonzalez Colon, who announced the visit via X.

The Governor thanked President Trump and his administration for “recognizing the strategic value of Puerto Rico to U.S. national security and the fight against the drug cartels in our region, led by drug lord (sic) Nicolas Maduro.”

Venezuela’s leftist President Maduro, who was re-elected in the summer of 2024 with the opposition alleging fraud and Washington refusing to recognise his victory, is accused by the Trump administration of being a drug cartel leader. Washington is promising a $50 million reward for information leading to his arrest.

Nicolas Maduro denies any connection to drug trafficking.

Two of his wife’s nephews have been convicted in a New York court in a cocaine trafficking trial.

The recent US deployment of warships in the Caribbean, a move that Mr Maduro describes as a threat to his country, and the deployment of fighter jets to Puerto Rico, always in the name of drug trafficking, marks at the very least a change of doctrine by the Trump administration, which until now has been limited to police action in the region.

Tensions escalated further last week when the US armed forces launched a strike against a speedboat that Donald Trump said was carrying drugs and had departed Venezuela. The US president added that 11 “narco-terrorists” on board were killed. Caracas referred to “extrajudicial killings.”

US officials warn that action of this nature against the drug cartels will continue.