“Today I am announcing Operation Southern Spear. This mission will remove narco-terrorists from our hemisphere and protect our homeland from the drugs that are killing our people,” Hegseth wrote in a post on X.
The mission will be led by a special task force and the Southern Command, the US military’s combat command covering 31 countries in South and Central America and the Caribbean.
The United States has carried out at least nineteen attacks on suspected drug ships in the Caribbean and off the Pacific coast of Latin America. At least 76 deaths have already occurred.