Top military leaders to visit Puerto Rico to thank deployed troops for service

Two top U.S. Army leaders will visit Puerto Rico on Monday to meet with troops and express gratitude for their work supporting missions across the Caribbean and Latin America.

Pentagon officials announced the visit in a memo on Sunday, saying the trip would include meetings with service members stationed in Puerto Rico and sailors working in the Caribbean.

“Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Kaine and David L. Isom will visit Puerto Rico on November 24, 2025 for the second time to engage with service members and thank them for their outstanding support of regional missions,” the media alert said. “They will also visit Sailors serving at sea and thank them for their dedicated and unwavering service in the Southern Command area of ​​responsibility.”

Kaine and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth’s first visit was in September, when they stopped on behalf of the Trump administration to show support for training troops on the island.

Secretary of War Hegseth lands in Puerto Rico as the United States intensifies its fight with the Caribbean Cartel with the Navy

The meeting was held at Muñiz Air Force Base in Carolina, outside San Juan, and was attended by top brass including Puerto Rico National Guard Commander-in-Chief Carlos Jose Rivera Roman, Public Safety Secretary Brig. General Arthur Garver, and other senior military leaders.

Hegseth spoke to nearly 300 soldiers at the base, thanking them and calling them “American warriors.” The Minister of War also emphasized that those serving in the armed forces would be the best equipped and prepared in the world.

The latest visit comes amid rising tensions in the Caribbean Sea, where the US military is expanding its naval presence near Venezuela, as part of president Donald Trump’s campaign to stem the flow of drugs from Latin America.

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Fox News confirms that Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Dan Kaine will host his European military counterparts to discuss Ukrainian security guarantees on Tuesday. (Chip Somodevila/Getty Images)

Earlier this month, Hegseth announced the official launch of Operation Southern Spear, a mission targeting terror and drug networks across Latin America.

U.S. Southern Command and Joint Task Force Southern Lance would lead the mission to defend the homeland and dismantle terrorist drug networks across the Western Hemisphere, Hegseth said on X at the time.

“This mission defends our homeland, removes drug terrorists from our hemisphere, and secures our homeland from the drugs that are killing our people,” Hegseth said.

Hegseth announces operation to remove “narco-terrorists from the hemisphere”

Hegseth said the ship was trafficking drugs. (war department)

Since early September, US military forces have carried out several lethal strikes against drug vessels operated by designated terrorist organizations in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific, destroying dozens of vessels linked to the Tren de Aragua cartel in Venezuela and the National Liberation Army in Colombia. The attacks resulted in the deaths of an estimated 82 suspected drug terrorists, with three survivors.

The campaign began on September 2 with a strike that killed 11 alleged members of the Tren de Aragua, and continued through October and November with a series of targeted operations that eliminated dozens more through known smuggling routes.

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US forces bombed submarines, fishing boats and high-speed ships, including a National Liberation Army ship, drawing criticism from the Colombian president after three men were killed.

Several strikes occurred near the coast of Venezuela, while others occurred in the eastern Pacific Ocean, where most recent operations were concentrated.