Overview
- Troop landings in Ponce, Puerto Rico continued over the weekend, with personnel and equipment moved ashore for transfer to Campamento Santiago, where Marines conducted free‑fall training, according to U.S. Southern Command.
- Open-source Pentagon figures describe roughly 12 warships, a nuclear submarine, aircraft including B‑52Hs and drones, and two carriers—USS Gerald R. Ford and Iwo Jima—with total U.S. forces reported at up to about 15,000.
- Reporters have tallied at least 22 lethal strikes on small civilian vessels since September, leaving about 87 people dead, a pattern legal experts say violates U.S. and international law.
- Regional partners are supplying logistics and access, including radar work and joint exercises in Trinidad and Tobago, limited use of an airport and an air base in the Dominican Republic, and a U.S. request to install a radar in Grenada.
- President Donald Trump has stated he intends to initiate ground operations in Venezuela, while President Nicolás Maduro alleges the buildup seeks his removal and has rallied supporters against U.S. actions.