Sept. 8 (UPI) -- U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and his top general made a surprise visit Monday to Puerto Rico as the Trump administration targets drug cartels in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Hegseth and Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Dan Caine landed in the U.S. territory six days after the Pentagon announced the United States had struck a boat of "narcoterrorists" off of Venezuela's coast, killing 11 people. While Trump claimed the vessel was carrying narcotics to the United States, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro denied the accusation.
Puerto Rico's governor, Jennifer Gonzalez-Colon, greeted Hegseth and Caine when they landed Monday and said she was "honored to welcome" them.
"We thank POTUS Trump and his administration for recognizing the strategic value Puerto Rico has to the national security of the United States and the fight against drug cartels in our hemisphere, perpetuated by narco-dictator Nicolas Maduro," Gonzalez-Colon wrote Monday in a post on X.
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