PR & USVI Hawked as Defense Hubs for US

M.A. Dworkin

Caribbean Sea - Over the last decade, China and Russia have focused on the Caribbean Basin. Beijing has invested billions in trade and infrastructure deals, while also establishing a spy base in Cuba. Moscow has taken a more threatening approach, with joint weapons sales, training, and joint military exercises.

In recent days, the US Navy has deployed warships to the Caribbean near Central and South America for counter-narcotics operations. The force includes three destroyers, two landing dock ships, an amphibious assault ship, a cruiser, a littoral combat ship, and a nuclear-powered submarine. The destroyers are carrying US Coast Guard and law enforcement detachments responsible for making arrests during drug interdiction missions. 

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters, “President Trump is prepared to use every element of American power to stop drugs from flooding into our country and to bring those responsible to justice.”

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has condemned the military buildup, calling it an “illegal” attempt to topple his government. He said Venezuela is being threatened by US nuclear submarines in violation of international treaties. 

Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has informed President Trump that Argentina has joined the international coalition supporting the US offensive against drug trafficking and the Maduro government. 

“The world is supporting us,” President Trump stated. “Just last week, Ecuador, Paraguay, Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago; now today Argentina. Everyone is joining us to help move this forward.”

With all of this military movement taking place in the Caribbean, Puerto Rico sees a definite advantage to throwing its strategic positioning into the political ring. 

“Puerto Rico, being geo-strategically located, provides us, as part of the nation, an opportunity to buy-in to our national security and to ensure that our national assets can be positioned here for deterrence in the region,” said Secretary of Puerto Rico’s Department of Public Safety, Art Garffer, who also serves as Homeland Security Advisor. “As recently as last November, major Russian joint exercises were conducted in the Caribbean Sea, where interestingly enough, a nuclear submarine surfaced, and it was carrying hypersonic nuclear weapons.”

After years of growing their influence in the region, Mr. Garffer feels our adversaries, being Russia and China, are now getting too close for comfort. 

“That whole southern area of the Caribbean Sea is now controlled or influenced by not necessarily friendly nations to the United States,” he stated.

Andres Martinez-Fernandez, a senior policy advisor with the Heritage Foundation, points out China could now have the ability to disrupt critical trade routes.

“If there is a disruption in the ability to move goods, and even military equipment, and warships across them, it can have very significant consequences for the United States. And as the risk of war over Taiwan increases with China, I would think the United States is looking very seriously at what that means for Chinese presence and projection powers within our hemisphere,” Mr. Martinez-Fernandez explained.

Secretary Garffer firmly believes it’s time for the U.S. to take advantage of the geo-political strategic positioning of Puerto Rico.

“We’ve got two deep sea ports, one on the eastern side, one on the southern side. We do have two of the longest runways in the Caribbean basin that we use for military purposes as well…This can all be used in a limited capacity to deter Russian and Chinese nuclear aggression in the region,” said Mr. Garffer.

His reasoning takes into account that as drug trafficking organizations and transnational criminal organizations continue to shift and look for new ports-of- entry due to the US southern border drug trafficking shut down, caused by President Trump’s tight border controls, these criminals need to move elsewhere in order to keep their illicit business going. So Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands could very well fall into that area of approach into the United States. 

In June 2025, a federal grand jury in the District of Puerto Rico returned three separate indictments charging 17 individuals with drug trafficking through the Luis Munoz Marin International Airport. Two defendants are also being charged with money laundering.

United States Virgin Islands Governor Albert Bryan Jr. recently spoke about his support for naval deployments in the Caribbean and the shifting routes of drug traffickers who are now looking to the Caribbean as a point-of-entry to bring drugs into the US.  

“If we could stop the flow of drugs to our shores, why wouldn’t we be for that?” Governor Bryan recently remarked. “Along with the cocaine comes a lot of bad actors. There are murders and a lot of things we don’t want… Every year we go to D.C. and plead for more Border Patrol and for more Coast Guard protection, along with more ICE agents, because we have a very porous border.”

The Governor stated he has no problem with an increased military presence in the USVI. There is strong talk out of Washington that a deployment of troops is already in the works for St. Croix. Besides for its obvious security benefits, the Governor sees there would also be an economic impact on the Territory. 

“I understand we have some soldiers staying in St. Croix. I am all for that. If the government wants to put two or three hundred soldiers here in St Croix as part of their initiative it’s fine by me. Those soldiers have to eat, drink and make merriment in our community. We are happy to have them.”

The Trump Administration has accused President Maduro and the President of Columbia, Gustavo Petro, of working with the Cartel de los Soles, which has been recently designated as a terrorist organization. 

Secretary Rubio stated that the U.S. still doesn’t recognize the Maduro regime as a legitimate government. The Justice and the State Departments announced a $50 million reward for information that leads to Maduro’s arrest. 

Attorney General Pam Bondi called Maduro a threat to U.S. National security.

“He uses foreign terrorist organizations like the Sinaloa Cartel, Tien de Aragua, and Cartel de los Soles to bring deadly drugs and violence into the United States.”

The National Drug Intelligence Center (NDIC) recently issued a drug threat assessment for the region:

Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands are transshipment points for illicit drugs that are smuggled from source countries into the U.S. mainland, as well as destination points for drugs distributed within the Territories,” the report stated. “Large drug shipments are shipped via commercial maritime conveyances, containerized cargo ships, large freighters, bulk cargo ships, commercial fishing vessels, along with private and commercial aircraft. The drugs are then offloaded in Puerto Rico and the USVI, repackaged, and stored in secluded areas until they are distributed locally or transported to the U.S. mainland.