US to Use Dominican Base in Anti-Cartel Campaign

The United States plans to use an air base and airport in the Dominican Republic as part of its intensified campaign against drug cartels, according to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Wednesday.

The move highlights deepening security cooperation in the Caribbean, as reported by Bloomberg.

Washington has recently carried out multiple strikes against suspected drug-smuggling vessels in the Caribbean and Pacific, resulting in more than 80 deaths.

President Donald Trump defended the operations, arguing that the boats belonged to transnational criminal organizations responsible for the overdose deaths of hundreds of thousands of Americans.

Standing alongside Hegseth at the National Palace in Santo Domingo, Dominican President Luis Abinader outlined the logistical framework of the cooperation.

Aircraft will receive refueling and logistical support at the San Isidro Air Base and at Las Américas International Airport near the capital. Abinader described the agreement as technical, limited, and temporary, intended to counter the threat posed by narcotics traffickers to the island nation, which has a long history of unwelcome US interventions.

“Our country faces a real threat that recognizes neither borders nor flags, destroys families, and has used our territory as part of its routes for decades,” Abinader noted.

Hegseth’s visit comes as the Trump administration undertakes its largest regional deployment in decades to confront alleged drug-trafficking networks. 

The trip follows the US government’s designation of Venezuela’s so-called “Cartel of the Sun” as a foreign terrorist organization, a group Washington describes as being run by senior Venezuelan military officers under the leadership of President Nicolás Maduro, an accusation Caracas rejects.

US Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Dan Kane traveled to Trinidad and Tobago for high-level talks focused on narcotics threats. Trinidad, located just off the Venezuelan coast, has become a pivotal point in the expanded US military posture in the Caribbean, with American warships now docking in Port of Spain.