“What you’re doing right now—it’s not training.” This is what Pete Hegseth told US sailors and Marines on Monday aboard the USS Iwo Jima off the coast of Puerto Rico. The Pentagon chief’s visit to the Caribbean came a week after US forces struck and sunk a boat allegedly involved in drug trafficking in the waters near Venezuela. While the US boat strike on September 2 has received a lot of media attention, less recognition has gone to how this operation fits within several partially overlapping US policies—toward the Maduro regime in Venezuela in particular and the Western Hemisphere more broadly.
Below, Atlantic Council experts explain what’s new, what stands out, and what to expect next—in four points.
