U.S. Southern Command

U.S. Southern Command announced Thursday that American forces carried out a lethal kinetic strike in the eastern Pacific Ocean, killing four suspected narco‑terrorists and destroying their heavily laden smuggling vessel. The attack, directed by Secretary of War Pete Hegseth under Operation Southern Spear, marks the 22nd strike against cartel‑linked traffickers in international waters and brings the total number of narco‑terrorists killed to nearly 90. The strikes continue despite harsh criticism from some lawmakers in Congress.

America’s largest aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R. Ford, arrived in the Caribbean on Tuesday, joining eight other warships and a nuclear submarine in the region.

The U.S. Southern Command deployed Marine counter-terrorism specialists to protect the U.S. Embassy in Haiti.

The U.S. Southern Command airlifted non-essential personnel from the U.S. Embassy in Haiti and sent more troops to the embassy to provide security.

A lawsuit was filed Thursday by the Heritage Foundation’s Oversight Project to compel the Biden administration and the Department of Defense (DOD) to produce all records concerning screenings of the hit movie Sound of Freedom after U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) abruptly canceled screenings without explanation earlier this year.

The vast majority of the Gitmo prisoners have received the first dose of the coronavirus vaccine, the U.S. military announced.

Northern Triangle governments don’t engage in the “systemic” persecution of their citizens, the basis for U.S. refugee or asylum status.

Admiral Craig Faller of the U.S. Southern Command told the Senate Armed Services Committee on Thursday that Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro no longer trusts his own people, so he has imported a squad of Cuban bodyguards for protection.

Communist China is seeking to expand its military and political influence across Latin America, warns the Center for a Secure Free Society (SFS) think-tank in a new report, echoing the U.S. armed forces.

China’s decision to expand its ambitious multi-trillion-dollar “One Belt, One Road” (OBOR) initiative to Latin America may create security vulnerabilities for the United States by allowing Beijing to expand its influence over the region, the chief of U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) cautioned lawmakers.

The “nexus” between Latin American drug cartels and Islamic terrorist groups like the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) affiliate Boko Haram, which controls Africa-based smuggling routes towards Europe, “is real” and expected to “get more sophisticated,” declared U.S. Department of Defense Secretary John Kelly.

Jihadist groups like the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) are engaged in efforts to “radicalize and recruit” people in Latin American regions home to violent street gangs that maintain links with U.S. counterparts, namely MS-13, according to the top American commander in the area.

Up to 125 jihadists and their relatives have traveled from the Caribbean island nation of Trinidad and Tobago to join the Islamic State (IS) in the Middle East, making the country “the largest per-capita source” of recruits for the jihadist group in the Western Hemisphere, reports the Associated Press (AP).

The Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL), as it loses territory in the Middle East, is infiltrating Latin America, warns Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) in a letter sent to President Barack Obama this week.

The Russian Defense Ministry announced that it is planning to upgrade its naval base in the Syrian port city of Tartus into a permanent facility, a move that comes as the Kremlin has expressed interest in erecting military bases in Latin America and Egypt, as well as reopening Soviet-era facilities in Vietnam and Cuba.

Latin American transnational criminal organizations (TCOs), including Mexican drug cartels, are paying Iran’s narco-terrorist proxy Hezbollah a “tax” to move people, narcotics, weapons and other contraband in and out out of the Western Hemisphere, an expert on Iranian influence in the region tells Breitbart News.

Islam had an estimated 3 million adherents in Latin America and the Caribbean as of the end of last year, marking an increase of nearly 25 percent from the 2.3 million who were residing there in 2010, a Breitbart News analysis of U.S. Department of State (DoS) data shows.

Iran’s foreign minister, Javad Zarif, started a Latin American tour in Cuba, the latest effort by the Islamic Republic to maintain its growing relationship with nations in the region.

U.S. officials are trying to establish closer cooperation with various Latin American nations to combat an increase in the number of illegal migrants from Asia, Africa, and the Middle East attempting to sneak into the United States.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. military is confronting an “extremist Islamist movement” in the Americas that has been linked to the use of illicit trafficking networks by criminals and terrorists, likely working together, revealed U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) chief Navy Adm. Kurt W. Tidd during a roundtable discussion with reporters.

Iran’s Lebanese terrorist proxy, Hezbollah, finds itself in dire financial straits after years of sanctions imposed by the United States and its allies, a top U.S. Department of Treasury official told lawmakers this week.

“Hundreds” of individuals from Latin America and the Caribbean have traveled to Syria and Iraq to join the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL), according to U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM).

The U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) is providing Department of Defense (DOD) personnel with guidance for personal protective measures in response to the mosquito-borne Zika virus outbreak in its area of operation (AOR).

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) chief has indicated that one of a few “radical” mosques in the Caribbean has linked itself to the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL), noting that the number of Islamic extremists in that region intent on attacking Western targets has increased in the last year.

The United States must guard against the flow of Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL)-linked foreign fighters across America’s borders, warned U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter.

Iranian “cultural centers,” established across Latin America to enhance the Shiite country’s influence in the region, have proliferated in the last three years, while the Obama administration has been trying to reach a nuclear agreement with Iran.

WASHINGTON, DC — The Iran-backed Lebanese terror group Hezbollah is among the terrorist organizations that are benefiting from the illegal drug trade in Latin America, Lt. Gen. Kenneth Tovo, deputy commander of the U.S. Southern Command (Southcom), told lawmakers.

Iran has established 80-plus “cultural centers” across Latin America and the Caribbean to promote Shiite Islam, counter U.S. influence in the region, and increase its own, according to the U.S. Southern Command’s 2015 posture statement submitted to Congress.