U.S. Officially Reopens Puerto Rico Naval Base; Russia moves in Air Defense

M.A. Dworkin

Puerto Rico - The United States has quietly reactivated the former Roosevelt Roads Naval base in Ceiba, Puerto Rico, while bringing in F-35s, a carrier strike group, bombers, and amphibious forces across the Caribbean. 

Roosevelt Roads, the sprawling Cold War-era naval hub that Washington shuttered in 2004, is quietly back in operation. According to a recent report coming out of Roosevelt Roads, accompanied by corroborating satellite imagery, U.S. forces have cleared and repaved taxiways leading to the runway in order to rebuild a key airfield infrastructure that would enable use by fighter jets as well as cargo planes; and have also begun sustained operations from the military site. At the same time a powerful U.S. air and naval alignment has moved into the Caribbean off the coast of Venezuela.

Naval Station Roosevelt Roads, having been in operation since 1943 before its closure, is now one of five locations where U.S. forces are operating in Puerto Rico. 

In early September, the U.S. sent 10 F-35 fighter jets to Puerto Rico for operations targeting drug cartels. 

“The F-35s wake me up every morning, said Samuel Rivera Baez, the Mayor of Ceiba, a town located next to the base. “Right now, the United States is the most powerful in the world. Having them here taking care of us, we feel more than safe.”

The military presence is drawing mixed feelings from Ceiba townspeople. 

“I feel tense, kind of anxious not knowing what is going to happen, maybe an attack of some country close by,” remarked a local resident of Ceiba.

This comes as new Pentagon images show a B-52 long range bomber flying over the World’s largest aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford as it positions itself in the Caribbean in a provocative display of American military prowess that is being staged by the Trump Administration against the Maduro regime in Venezuela.

According to a Navy official, the U.S. has four military ships in the western Atlantic Ocean, including the USS Gerald R. Ford and three guided missile destroyers. It has at least another seven military ships in the Caribbean, which include two guided missile destroyers, two guided missile cruisers, an amphibious assault ship, two amphibious transport dock ships, and a nuclear submarine. 

As the U.S. conducts ‘live fire’ exercises in the region, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, whom the U.S. wants to remove from power for his alleged ties to drug cartels, spoke out against what he called threats of an invasion. Maduro claims the U.S. is using counter-narcotics as a pretext for war. Although the U.S. has blown 20 go-fast boats out of the waters off the coast of his country, killing 80 alleged narco-terrorists, Maduro has called for peace while urging Trump to avoid an  Afghanistan-style ‘forever war.’

“Raise your hand if you want Venezuela to become a Yankee colony,” Maduro told a crowd gathered in the capital of Caracas.    

Venezuela is not sitting back and taking all this military might off its coast in a casual manner. It is deploying Iranian built drones along its coastlines, including Kamikaze drones with a range of 1000 km. Venezuelan Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino has announced the deployment of larger vessels further north in their territorial waters. Venezuelan officers were reportedly training troops for guerrilla-style defense against a possible US strike. China is also preparing to send military equipment to Venezuela. It has already deployed a naval hospital ship in the region as part of the “Mission Harmony 2025” a move seen as a strategic hint to the U.S. 

Maduro has also reportedly sent a letter to Russia seeking more military aid and a three-year financing plan for military repairs and acquisitions. A Russian cargo plane landed in Venezuela in late October, after making a similar journey in August. Moscow has also stunned the Pentagon by reportedly deploying its powerful S-400 Triumf long-range surface-to-air missile defense system in the Caribbean. With a range of over 400 kilometers, the S-400 has a reach into the entire Caribbean and U.S, bases in Puerto Rico and Southern Florida. It is able to track and destroy stealth targets simultaneously, making it a serious threat to enemy air power. 

Although the S-400 has had its reputation challenged by its actual performance in conflict, due to the fact it has been destroyed by older Weapons systems, suggesting it is vulnerable in actual combat, the highly feared S-400 can change the balance of power by tracking and destroying targets, like the stealth aircraft F-35 Lightning II, giving Venezuela one of the most advanced air defense systems in all of Latin America, making the skies over Caracas one of the most dangerous no-fly zones for U.S. jets.    

Lying 500 miles off the coast of Venezuela, the Roosevelt Roads base has now seen the largest U.S. mobilization in decades. What U.S. officials are calling a counter narcotics operation appears more like a broader military operation due to its sheer scale and composition. More than 10,000 U.S. personnel now operate in the United States Southern Command, with about half positioned in Puerto Rico and half on vessels offshore.