United States Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has formally announced the launch of a US military operation to target so-called “narco-terrorists” as Washington’s large-scale build-up of troops, warships and fighter jets continues in Latin America.

“Today, I’m announcing Operation SOUTHERN SPEAR. Led by Joint Task Force Southern Spear and @SOUTHCOM, this mission defends our Homeland, removes narco-terrorists from our Hemisphere, and secures our Homeland from the drugs that are killing our people,” Hegseth said in a post on X.

The naming of Operation Southern Spear comes as the USS Gerald R Ford, the most advanced US aircraft carrier, is expected to arrive off the coast of Venezuela within days, which has been described as an extraordinary show of US military power not seen in South America in generations.

The arrival of the aircraft carrier adds to the already significant build-up of US troops, naval forces and air power, purportedly as part of Trump’s targeting of Latin American drug trafficking gangs but widely seen as directed at the removal of Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro.