The White House reactivated a shuttered Cold War-era military base in Puerto Rico and deployed F-35 fighters, helicopters and transport planes there in a show of strength against Venezuela.
The Federal Aviation Administration last week issued temporary flight restrictions, citing “special security reasons,” for an area off the southeast coast of Ceiba, Puerto Rico, expected to last until March 31. The city’s Jose Aponte de la Torre Airport was formerly the Roosevelt Roads Naval Station.
Puerto Rico is about 500 miles north of Venezuela, making it an obvious choice to base the growing U.S. military presence in the Caribbean.
Some lawmakers in San Juan back the idea of using Roosevelt Roads as a staging ground for military strikes against the regime of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.
In an open letter to the American people, Puerto Rico’s Senate President Thomas Rivera Schatz called Mr. Maduro “an illegitimate narco-leader, an international criminal, and a direct threat to the American nation and the Caribbean.”
Mr. Rivera Schatz said drug trafficking isn’t a distant problem. It affects the safety of Puerto Rico and the U.S., he told The San Juan Daily Star.
“Every kilo of cocaine that leaves Venezuela, protected by the cartel and Maduro’s accomplices, is a bullet fired at our youth [and] a threat to the stability of the nation and the Caribbean region,” Mr. Rivera Schatz told the newspaper.
Roosevelt Roads provided support in past decades for American invasions of the Dominican Republic, Grenada, Haiti and Panama. The base closed in 2004.
• Mike Glenn can be reached at mglenn@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.