NATIONAL HARBOR, Md.—Special operations airmen are ready for missions in support of President Donald Trump’s controversial campaign against narco-terrorism groups in the Caribbean region, the leader of Air Force Special Operations Command said Wednesday.
While Lt. Gen. Michael Conley declined to specifically disclose if they are supporting operations related to Venezuela, a he told reporters that his airmen have strike, surveillance, and mobility assets that “any combatant commander would love.”
“We are prepped to go where the nation needs us,” he said during a media roundtable at the Air & Space Force Association’s Air, Space, and Cyber Conference. “We are doing things that you’d expect out of special operations, just in the sense that we need to be ready to go.”
Conley’s remarks come amid congressional uproar over the U.S. military’s airstrike on an alleged drug-running boat in the Caribbean Sea and backlash from the Venezuelan government.
Conley also said he supports more training exercises in the region as part of the Trump administration’s new defense priorities.
Just days before the first deadly airstrike on an alleged drug boat in the Caribbean Sea, AFSOC held a long-planned exercise on St. Croix in which air commandos conducted a mock takeover of an airport, demonstrating the Air Force’s Agile Combat Employment concept—which was originally designed for use against adversaries such as China or Russia.
Conley said the training’s timing was coincidental, but added he wants to have his airmen do more exercises in the region—a notable departure from a decades-long focus on the Middle East and Africa.
“We are very good at the AFRICOM and CENTCOM operations,” Conley said. “When we get into new theaters and training in new places, it’s all goodness for us.”
Since the inaugural boat strike, which the White House said killed 11 people aboard, the military has increased its presence in the Caribbean Sea. Air Force MQ-9 Reaper drones and Marine Corps F-35Bs have been placed in Puerto Rico alongside C-5 and C-17 military transports, open source intelligence accounts report.
Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro sent a letter, which was later shared on Telegram, to President Donald Trump asking to meet with his special envoy and to stop the increased military build up and presence.
“The military threat against Venezuela, the Caribbean and South America must cease, and the proclamation of a Zone of Peace must be respected,” the letter read.
Last week, Venezuela held a military exercise dubbed “Sovereign Caribbean 200” that included a display of warships, aircraft ,and troops. Venezuelan military forces have also been training civilians on how to use weapons.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters Monday that the administration “viewed the Maduro regime as illegitimate, and the president has clearly shown that he is willing to use any and all means necessary to stop the illegal trafficking of deadly drugs from the Venezuelan regime into the United States.”
The Pentagon’s new priority is the homeland, and the administration aims to “restore our neglected position in the Western Hemisphere,” according to a memo obtained by Defense One last month. Conley told reporters he plans to follow the administration’s priorities and wants to see future AFSOC training reflect that.
“I look at where the national defense strategy has us going, the interim one, where the administration is placing that priority, and I want to train in those places,” Conley said. “The first time we go there, if called upon for real, I don’t want it to be the first time we’ve operated in those environments.”
