U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has officially announced the name of the ongoing military campaign in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific: “Operation SOUTHERN SPEAR.” The announcement, made via a post on X (formerly Twitter), confirms the formal establishment of a new military task force to escalate the fight against drug cartels.
“President Trump ordered action — and the Department of War is delivering,” Hegseth wrote on November 13, 2025. “Today, I’m announcing Operation SOUTHERN SPEAR.”
This operation will be led by U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) and a newly created joint task force, Joint Task Force-Southern Spear (JTF-SS).
Hegseth framed the mission in stark terms, casting it as a homeland defense operation. “This mission defends our Homeland, removes narco-terrorists from our Hemisphere, and secures our Homeland from the drugs that are killing our people,” he stated. “The Western Hemisphere is America’s neighborhood – and we will protect it.”
“Operation Southern Spear” is the official designation for a campaign that has already been underway for two months. Since September 2025, U.S. forces have conducted over a dozen lethal strikes on alleged “narco-terrorist” vessels, killing at least 80 people. The operation is part of the Trump administration’s “maximum pressure” strategy, which has designated groups like Venezuela’s “Cartel of the Suns” (Cartel de los Soles) as Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs).
This FTO designation is the legal justification the administration is using to bypass Congress and authorize military force. The creation of JTF-Southern Spear provides a formal command structure for these activities.
This new task force will control the massive military buildup in the region, which includes the USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier strike group, F-35 fighter jets, and thousands of U.S. troops. It is also the command that would be responsible for executing the land-based strike options inside Venezuela that were recently presented to President Trump.
