The United States' top military officer is visiting American troops in Puerto Rico and on a Navy warship in the region, where the US has amassed an unusually large fleet of warships. This trip comes as Washington designates Cartel de los Soles, or Cartel of the Suns, as a "foreign terrorist organisation."
General Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and President Donald Trump's primary military adviser, will be joined by David L. Isom, the senior enlisted adviser to Caine.
Caine's office said in a statement on Monday that the men will "engage with service members and thank them for their outstanding support to regional missions."
This will be Caine's second visit to the region since the US military started building up its presence, which now includes the nation's most advanced aircraft carrier.
Caine and US Secretary of War Pete Hegsethcame to Puerto Rico in September after ships carrying hundreds of US Marines arrived for what officials said was a training exercise.
Hegseth said then that the deployed Marines were "on the front lines of defending the American homeland."
Caine's visit comes as Trump evaluates whether to use military aggression against Venezuela, which he has not ruled out as part of his administration's escalating campaign to combat alleged drug trafficking into the US.
The buildup of American warships and the strikes, which have killed more than 80 people on 21 alleged drug boats, are seen by many as a pressure tactic to topple Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s government by any means.
'Ridiculous' US designation
On Monday, the Trump administration also ramped up pressure by labelling the Cartel de los Soles as "foreign terrorist organisation", although the entity that the US government alleges is led by Maduro is not a cartel per se.
"Venezuela categorically, firmly, and absolutely rejects the new and ridiculous fabrication by the Secretary of the US Department of State, Marco Rubio, which designates the non-existent Cartel de los Soles as a terrorist organisation," said Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yvan Gil on his Telegram account on Monday.
The measure revives "an infamous and vile lie to justify an illegitimate and illegal intervention against Venezuela, under the classic US regime-change format. This new manoeuvre will meet the same fate as previous and recurring aggressions against our country: failure," it added.
The Trump administration applied the label in February to eight Latin American criminal organizations involved in drug trafficking, migrant smuggling and other activities.
The administration blames such designated groups for operating the boats it is striking but rarely identifies the organisations and has not provided any evidence.
Hegseth said last week that the designation of Cartel de los Soles will provide a "whole bunch of new options to the United States" for dealing with Maduro.
In an interview with conservative news outlet OAN, Hegseth did not provide details on what those options are and declined to say whether the US military planned to strike land targets inside Venezuela.
"So nothing is off the table, but nothing’s automatically on the table," he said.
