The United States has carried out A second attack Against an alleged vessel of Venezuelan drug traffickers in the Caribbean, ordered by Trump, who assured that it was “narcoterrorist” and spread, againan aerial video of the impact that three dead would have left. The problem is that it has not been possible to verify that the boat belonged to a poster or to transport drugs. Actually, the most worrying thing for Venezuela is kilometers from the nation.
Second attack. As We countat the beginning of the month there was another attack against a “drug ship” attributed to the Aragua train leaving 11 deathsin a context of American naval reinforcement in the area with eight ships (including destroyers, a cruise, an amphibious assault ship and a nuclear submarine) and a hard line expressed by Marco Rubio of “fly” suspicious vessels.
For its part, Nicolás Maduro He has denounced The last attack as an “aggression” in international waters and a pretext to force a regime change, stating that communications with Washington are broken except for migrant repatriation efforts, and rejecting the accusations To lead the “Los Soles poster”, although the United States raised to 50 million dollars the reward for information that leads to its capture.
An operational piece. Time will say what is the scope of Washington’s plans, but a track is offered by the old Naval Station Roosevelt Roadsclosed in 2004 and largely delivered to the Government of Puerto Rico. The reason? USA He has reopened it as a node of operations for the campaign against drug trafficking in the Caribbean and to sustain pressure on Maduro’s Venezuelan regime.
The arrival of F-35B furtive fightersadded to load flights C-5 Galaxy and C-17 Globemaster IIIas well as the presence of MV-22 Osprey and helicopters CH-53K of the IWO Jima Amphibious Readiness Group and the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit, has converted the current José Aponte de la Torre airport, into CEIBA, into a activity center growing. Air Force personnel have reactivated the operability of the control tower, while grounding equipment They load and download Material to support imminent operations, recovering the logistics pulse of an installation that for years seemed definitely numb.
A “city-base.” With a gigantic surface at the eastern end of the main island, Roosevelt Roads combines a track of more than 3 km Able to host practically all the American air inventory with a deep water port suitable for surface ships and submarines, a binomial that singular it in the Caribbean arch.
That Air-Mar duality It returns to place it as a support point for regional scope maneuvers and as a fast deployment platform, functions that the installation already performed for decades, now reissued in a context of transnational crime, maritime surveillance and need for expeditionary mobility.
Ohio Uss Maryland class ballistic missile submarine at the Roosevelt Roads Naval Station, 1997
Growth in the Cold War. They remembered Twz analysts that the idea of placing a large base in East Puerto Rico He was born in 1919when Franklin Delano Roosevelt, then Undersecretary of the Navy, explored the area and tried it strategic for the Caribbean control. Inaugurated in 1943 And baptized in his honor, the base was conceived as cornerstone of the regional defense, with protected anchoring, a major aerodrome and industrial capabilities capable of sustaining a good part of the Atlantic fleet in war conditions.
Reorient as Naval Station in 1957his footprint expanded during the Cold War before the perception of Cuba as a threat aligned with the USSR, becoming a large support center for the sixth fleet and hosting the Naval Communications Station of Puerto Rico after attacks that damaged equipment in another location. Over time, the “city-base” came to add More than one hundred miles of interior roads already support operations that go from the Dominican Republic and Haiti to Granada and Panama, a reflection of their centrality in the American military architecture of the hemisphere.
Aerial view of the base
Slope. Roosevelt Roads’s operational link with Vieques’ shooting polygon marked his reason for being For six decadesbut also fed a social answer sustained by civil victims and environmental damage. He End of bombing In 2003 emptied its main mission and, in full strategic turn after 11-S towards campaigns in the Middle East and Central Asia, the base entered the BRAC closing process.
The Marina transferred thousands of homes, schools, profits and a hospital to the government of Puerto Rico, a decision held by those who rejected militarization, but opened An economic hole of great draft in the CEIBA region and adjacent municipalities.
Operational reactivation. Despite the formal closure, Roosevelt Roads never disappeared completely from the functional map: in 2017 It served as a platform For the help effort after Hurricane Maria, demonstrating the usefulness of its infrastructure integrated in emergency situations.
On August 31, the Large scale return of the Navy to support the training and operations of the 22nd Meu visibly reactivated its logistics chain, its air traffic and its role as a “link” of a reinforced anti -drug architecture, with multiplier effects on other facilities of the island that operate in tandem.
The debate in Puerto Rico. While a defense official rules out, for now, permanent reopening, the drive grows on the island to return to Roosevelt Roads A stable status. Senate resolution 286, driven by senators Nitza Morán Trinidad and Carmelo Ríos Santiago, proposes to audit the state of the old base and study its eventual reallocation for security purposes National under the army.
The argument is based on A double promise: contribute to the defense of the Caribbean and the Americas and, at the same time, reactivate an economic engine that for decades irrigated employment, services and investment in CEIBA and surroundings. The memory of the social costs associated with Vieques lives today with the evidence that the installation, properly fit into concrete missions and with strict environmental minimums, can generate regional activity and resilience.
Possible scenarios. Without a defined temporal horizon (or “official”) for the Caribbean Operation of Washingtonthe most feasible short -term course is the continuity of Roosevelt Roads as joint training, projection and logistics hub, with tactical aviation flows, strategic transport and naval presence regulating intensity according to needs.
In the medium term, the combination of a political-military focus sustained in Central and South America, the uniqueness of its dual infrastructure and The legislative initiative local could crystallize in more ambitious plans, reopening the dilemma between economic opportunity and historical sensibilities around militarization.
Meanwhile, reality It is unequivocal: The basis that many definitely closed has awakened from their lethargy and occupies an operational place on the Caribbean board, with the ability to influence both regional security and the economy of the Puerto Rican East.
Image | Roosevelt Roads, PicrylPublic domain
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