WATCH: Closed Navy base in Puerto Rico could play role in fight against narco terrorists

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(The Center Square) – As the Trump administration continues to target suspected narco terrorists in the Caribbean, one of the top U.S. Navy bases in the region, which was closed two decades ago, could potentially play a pivotal role.

President Donald Trump hosted a roundtable Thursday afternoon at the White House with a focus on crime crackdown and targeting suspected narco terrorists.

The Center Square asked Trump and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth if the administration has plans to expand operations, including homeporting ships at Roosevelt Roads in Puerto Rico, a base that was closed in 2004 as part of a base realignment and closure (BRAC).

Roosevelt Roads, located on the eastern coast of the island, is equipped with a “large scale airfield and deep-water port facilities,” according to the Naval Facilities Engineering Command. It is located less than 600 miles from Venezuela.

In response to a possible expansion by the U.S. Navy in the Caribbean, specifically Puerto Rico, in addressing potential adversarial threats in Latin America, Hegseth told The Center Square Thursday that the Department of War is keeping its eyes on adversaries in the region; however, he didn’t indicate if there are plans to expand U.S. Naval operations in Puerto Rico.

“We're familiar with the location that you're referring to, and we will make sure that we're properly placed in order to deal with the contingency we're dealing with there, and also any ways in which other countries would attempt to be involved also, so we can walk and chew gum. We're definitely keeping our eyes on near peer adversaries at the same time,” said Hegseth. “But we think sending a message on these cartels, these narco terrorists, is an important, important inside our hemisphere, which for far too long other presidents, as the president pointed out, they've ignored our own backyard and allowed other countries to increase their influence here, which only threatens the American people. We're changing that.”

The president responded to The Center Square’s question with receptiveness to expansion, though he didn’t indicate if an expansion would include returning Roosevelt Roads as a full operational base.

Trump touted record military recruitment while saying the U.S. is ripe for military expansion.

“This is a good time to expand if we want to do it and I think we should, I think we should and probably will,” said the president.

Trump has repeatedly called for the U.S. to increase its shipbuilding efforts, raising concerns as China continues to expand its military, especially its naval fleet.

In recent years, Venezuela, under the dictatorship of socialist Nicolas Maduro, has aligned the country with American adversaries, such as Russia, China and Iran.

In 2022, Venezuela hosted military drills with countries including Russia, China and Iran.

The Center for Strategic and International Studies warns that Latin America is ripe for U.S. adversarial influences.

“While Western observers have focused their attention on joint connivances of Russia and Iran in Eastern Europe, Eurasia, and the Middle East, where Russo-Iranian military-security operations directly affect U.S. and European interests, the Western Hemisphere is not isolated from the two countries’ quests for global influence. In fact, in many ways it is an essential piece of the puzzle. First, both Iran and Russia perceive Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) as a fertile ground for exploiting popular resentment vis-à-vis the United States and the ‘collective West,’ which they – rather successfully – harness to advance their view of a multipolar world,” according to CSIS.

The group cites sanctions from the West, which are growing in large part due to Russia’s ongoing offensive in Ukraine.

“Second, LAC partners could prove instrumental in offsetting the impacts of Western sanctions against Moscow and Tehran by mitigating their diplomatic and economic isolation. Finally, certain LAC countries could also serve as less scrutinized partners for further developing Russo-Iranian warfare capabilities or cooperation, sheltering mercenaries or militias – such as Hezbollah – and acting as vectors for ‘horizontal escalation’ of conflicts in which Russia and Iran are currently involved,” the group added.

The comments by Trump and Hegseth came hours before a Friday announcement by Hegseth that the USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN-78) and its escorts will shift from the Mediterranean to the U.S. Southern Command Area of Responsibility to support the administration’s counter-drug operations, according to a Pentagon spokesman.

“The enhanced U.S. force presence in the USSOUTHCOM AOR will bolster U.S. capacity to detect, monitor, and disrupt illicit actors and activities that compromise the safety and prosperity of the United States homeland and our security in the Western Hemisphere. These forces will enhance and augment existing capabilities to disrupt narcotics trafficking and degrade and dismantle TCOs,” Sean Parnell, U.S. assistant to the secretary for public affairs, posted on X.

The move comes as the Pentagon announced its 10th strike on suspected narco terrorists in both the Caribbean and Pacific, with boats and submersibles originating out of Venezuela and Colombia.