The aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford arrived on St. Thomas Monday. The arrival marked the Ford’s first port visit since entering waters overseen by the U.S. Southern Command as part of the Trump administration’s military action against alleged drug traffickers, dubbed Operation Southern Spear.
The visit comes as U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is under increasing scrutiny following a report by the Washington Post that he gave a spoken command to kill two surviving crew members after an initial missile attack on their boat Sept. 2 in the Caribbean Sea. The U.S. government alleges they were smuggling drugs.
Hegseth has denied any wrongdoing, but lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have voiced concerns in recent days. Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., said during a television interview that such an act would violate the Defense Department’s own policies and international laws.
“And so this rises to the level of a war crime if it’s true,” he said.
Rep. Mike Turner, R-Ohio, said on the same program that such an order would be “very serious.”
“There are very serious concerns in Congress about the attacks on the so-called drug boats down in the Caribbean and the Pacific, and the legal justification has been provided,” he told CBS News reporter Margaret Brennan on Face the Nation Sunday. “But this is, is completely outside of anything that has been discussed with Congress, and there is an ongoing investigation.”
The Trump administration has justified its ongoing campaign in the region, which has resulted in at least 83 deaths since the effort began in September, by arguing that the U.S. “is in a non-international armed conflict” with “designated terrorist organizations” to fight maritime drug trafficking from Latin America to the U.S.
Government House spokesperson Richard Motta Jr. told the Source Monday that the Virgin Islands government isn’t privy to the military’s operational details.
“We get the notice that they’ll be in port — and how many people are going to be in port — and we just coordinate the logistics around making sure that they have transport and that there’s increased security as needed when they’re in port,” he said. “But outside of that, we don’t have any other information about what they’re doing in the Caribbean.”
“We read it in the press, just like everyone else,” he added.
During a Government House press briefing Monday, V.I. Territorial Management Agency Director Daryl Jaschen said the port visits to the territory were reminiscent of a time decades ago, when sailors and Marines enjoyed “R and R” in the U.S. Virgin Islands. During the recent visits, Jaschen said, the Navy is working alongside the V.I. Police Department to patrol the areas visited by visiting service members.
“As a result, additional government agencies have been brought to bear to support these operations and work closely with the ship agents to meet new requirements,” he said, adding that local agencies are “having to go back and sort of relearn how we treat and bring our visitors, as well as the ships, to our shores.”
Rear Adm. Paul Lanzilotta, commander of Carrier Strike Group Twelve, said in a statement released by the Navy that the port visit to St. Thomas “gives us the rest and recuperation we need to continue the mission of upholding law and order across the Western Hemisphere in support of the president’s priorities.”
The commander originally in charge of U.S. forces in the Caribbean, Adm. Alvin Holsey, announced his resignation last month.
St. Croix Source
Local news
