How the US is preparing a Caribbean staging ground near Venezuela

The United States military is upgrading a long-abandoned former Cold War naval base in the Caribbean, a Reuters visual investigation has found, suggesting preparations for sustained operations that could help support possible actions inside Venezuela. 

The construction activity at the former Roosevelt Roads naval base in Puerto Rico — shuttered by the Navy more than 20 years ago — was underway on September 17 when crews began clearing and repaving taxiways leading to the runway, according to photos taken by Reuters.

Until the Navy withdrew from the facility in 2004, Roosevelt Roads was one of the biggest U.S. naval stations in the world. The base occupies a strategic location and offers a large amount of space for gathering equipment, one U.S. official said.

In addition to the upgrades of landing and take-off capabilities at Roosevelt Roads, the U.S. is building out facilities at civilian airports in Puerto Rico and St Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands.

The two U.S. territories sit roughly 500 miles from Venezuela.

Reuters spoke to three U.S. military officials and three maritime experts who said the new construction in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands pointed to preparations that could enable the U.S. military to carry out operations inside Venezuela. Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has repeatedly alleged that the U.S. is hoping to drive him from power. 

“All of these things are, I think, are designed to scare the pants off the Maduro regime and the generals around him, with the hope that it will create fissures,” Christopher Hernandez-Roy, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington, told Reuters.  

To monitor U.S. military activity in the region over the last two months, Reuters photographed U.S. military bases and reviewed satellite imagery, ship and flight tracking data and social media posts. The news agency also tracked movements of U.S. military vessels through on-the-ground reporting and open-source photos and videos.  

The military buildup in the region is the largest unrelated to disaster relief since 1994, when the United States sent two aircraft carriers and more than 20,000 troops to Haiti to take part in “Operation Uphold Democracy.” 

Since early September, the United States has carried out at least 14 strikes against alleged drug vessels in the Caribbean and Pacific, killing 61 people. 

The strikes on alleged drug vessels have increased tensions with Venezuela and Colombia and drawn attention to a part of the world that has received limited resources within the U.S. military in recent years.

Asked for comment on the military expansion in the region, the White House said President Donald Trump had promised on the campaign trail to take on the region’s drug cartels.

“He has taken unprecedented action to stop the scourge of narcoterrorism that has resulted in the needless deaths of innocent Americans,” White House spokesperson Anna Kelly said in a statement to Reuters.

The U.S. military buildup in the Caribbean began in August with the arrival of warships, a nuclear-powered submarine, fighter jets and spy planes.

The Ford aircraft carrier strike group, with roughly 10,000 troops and dozens of aircraft and weapons systems, is on its way from the Adriatic Sea. One of the Ford’s destroyers cleared Gibraltar on October 29, according to satellite imagery and ship tracking data.

Presented with Reuters’ findings, the Pentagon did not respond to a request for comment. The governor of Puerto Rico did not respond to a request for comment.

Building up Caribbean bases

Some of the most dramatic infrastructure improvements are occurring at the former Roosevelt Roads base, where crews are upgrading taxiways with improvements that analysts say would enable use by fighter jets as well as cargo planes.

Mark Cancian, a retired U.S. Marine Corps colonel and senior adviser with the CSIS, said the changes were consistent with preparations for an increase in landings and takeoffs of military aircraft.

In addition to the taxiway refurbishments, Reuters observed the installation of portable air traffic support and other mobile security equipment.

Satellite imagery taken on October 29 shows 20 new tents southeast of the runway near an abandoned aircraft hangar.

Hernandez-Roy, the CSIS fellow, told Reuters it was possible that the U.S. military was simply repairing potholes. But he added:  “If your focus is now going to be on Western Hemisphere, it makes perfect sense that you would want to reopen what was once a huge naval station and make sure that it can accommodate the range of airframes that the U.S. military uses.”

Reuters also found significant changes at Rafael Hernandez Airport, the second-busiest civilian airport in Puerto Rico. 

By mid-October, the U.S. military had moved in communications gear and a mobile air traffic control tower — typically used to coordinate a surge of aircraft in war zones or after disasters.

Mobile air traffic control towers are used to coordinate a larger number of aircraft moving in and out of a region, according to military experts.

Satellite images show construction of an ammunition storage facility at the airport – although the experts Reuters spoke to said it was not immediately clear what weapons could be stored there. 

“That’s very important,” Cancian said. “They could be used in the near-term for an operation against Venezuela.” But he acknowledged the facility could also signal long-term planning against counter-cartel operations.

On the nearby island of St. Croix, satellite imagery taken in September and October also shows construction activity at a civilian airport.

The images, from Henry E. Rohlsen Airport, show active construction near the apron, where planes are parked and serviced. Improving aprons could allow more U.S. military aircraft to park and refuel, the U.S. officials told Reuters.

A video filmed by a local resident at the request of Reuters shows a new radar system at the airport.

Albert Bryan Jr., the governor of the U.S. Virgin Islands, said in a statement through his office that while there was a level of coordination with the U.S. military over troop deployments on the territory, his office was not privy to operational details and future planning of those operations.

“He believes a regional presence of the U.S. military strengthens security and deters the trafficking of drugs and weapons through the territory,” the statement said.

Hernandez-Roy, with the CSIS, said the changes could be intended to support the large number of U.S. military aircraft coming into the region. The upgrades could also help plug gaps in radar surveillance capabilities, if drug traffickers turn from ships towards aircraft. 

“The one gap in radar (coverage) that is a perennial problem for intercepting drug flights, is actually over Haiti, and it’s kind of like this big black hole,” Hernandez-Roy added.

According to the State Department, Haiti is used as a transit point to move cocaine and marijuana from South America to the United States.

The Haitian embassy did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Shipping in U.S. Naval firepower

According to Reuters reporting and U.S. officials, the Trump administration since August has deployed at least 13 warships, five support vessels and a nuclear submarine to the region from various naval bases and global deployments — including the Gerald Ford aircraft carrier, the largest vessel of its kind. 

Eight warships remain in the region, along with supporting vessels.

In addition, a former commercial vessel, the MV Ocean trader, has been observed docking in Puerto Rico and St. Croix and off the coast of Venezuela. While little information is publicly available on the MV Ocean Trader, it is widely believed by experts to be associated with U.S. Special Forces. 

Brent Sadler, a maritime security expert with the Heritage Foundation, said the vessel was capable of deploying helicopters used by special forces and could also be used for landing forces.

Reuters identified the ship in satellite imagery 53 miles from Saint Kitts in late September but could not determine when the ship was deployed to the region. It was last observed docking in Ponce, Puerto Rico, at the end of October.

Three guided-missile destroyers — the USS Jason Dunham, the USS Gravely and the USS Stockdale — have also been deployed to the Caribbean.  

And Reuters has spotted the arrival of support vessels including two refueling tankers, the USNS Kanawha and USNS Joshua Humphreys, a hospital ship, the USNS Comfort, and a submarine navigation-system testing vessel, the USNS Waters.

Air power off the Venezuelan coast

A ramp-up of U.S. military aircraft is also underway. Along with the Ford aircraft carrier, which can hold more than 75 military aircraft, the Pentagon has sent in 10 F-35 advanced aircraft and spy planes, according to previous Reuters reporting.

In late October, the U.S. Air Force flew supersonic Lancer bombers from Dyess Air Force Base in Abilene, Texas and Grand Forks Air Force Base in North Dakota off the coast of Venezuela, according to flight tracking data.

On October 15, three B-52 bombers took off from Barksdale Air Force Base in Shreveport, Louisiana, and circled off the coast of Venezuela before returning to base, according to flight tracking data.

The military is also shipping in materiel. Reuters tracked dozens of flights into the region by C-17 cargo aircraft.  The experts interviewed by Reuters said the planes could be resupplying ships or bringing weapons systems or drones to the Puerto Rico base.

And at least a dozen spy aircraft from the U.S. Naval Air Station in Jacksonville, Florida, flew over the Bahamas and further south over the Caribbean in October, according to flight tracking data from FlightRadar24. Experts say these flights by Poseidon P-8A aircraft suggest the U.S. military is trying to gather large amounts of intelligence in the region.

While the endgame of the massive buildup is not yet clear, the pieces are in place for operations inside Venezuela, something President Donald Trump suggested last Thursday. 

“The land is going to be next,” he said.