Sto­ry by Nel­son A. King | CMC

Unit­ed States War Sec­re­tary, Pe­te Hegseth, says the com­man­der head­ing US counter-nar­cotics op­er­a­tions in the Caribbean will re­tire by year’s end.

“On be­half of the De­part­ment of War, we ex­tend our deep­est grat­i­tude to Ad­mi­ral Alvin Holsey for his more than 37 years of dis­tin­guished ser­vice to our na­tion as he plans to re­tire at year’s end,” said Hegseth in mak­ing the an­nounce­ment on X, for­mer­ly Twit­ter, on Thurs­day.

“A na­tive of Fort Val­ley, Geor­gia, Ad­mi­ral Holsey has ex­em­pli­fied the high­est stan­dards of naval lead­er­ship since his com­mis­sion­ing through the NROTC pro­gram at More­house Col­lege in 1988,” he added.

“Through­out his ca­reer—from com­mand­ing he­li­copter squadrons to lead­ing Car­ri­er Strike Group One and stand­ing up the In­ter­na­tion­al Mar­itime Se­cu­ri­ty Con­struct—Ad­mi­ral Holsey has demon­strat­ed un­wa­ver­ing com­mit­ment to mis­sion, peo­ple, and na­tion.

“His tenure as Mil­i­tary Deputy Com­man­der and now Com­man­der of Unit­ed States South­ern Com­mand (SOUTH­COM) re­flects a lega­cy of op­er­a­tional ex­cel­lence and strate­gic vi­sion,” Hegseth said.

Holsey, 60, who has led the Mi­a­mi-based SOUTH­COM for less than a year, said on the com­mand’s Face­book page on Thurs­day that it’s “been an ho­n­our to serve our na­tion, the Amer­i­can peo­ple and sup­port and de­fend our Con­sti­tu­tion for over 37 years.

“The SOUTH­COM team has made last­ing con­tri­bu­tions to the de­fense of our na­tion and will con­tin­ue to do so,. I am con­fi­dent that you will forge ahead, fo­cused on your mis­sion that strength­ens our na­tion and en­sures its longevi­ty as a bea­con of free­dom around the globe.”

Holsey’s im­pend­ing re­tire­ment an­nounce­ment comes two days af­ter the US’s fifth fa­tal mil­i­tary strike on an al­leged nar­co-traf­fick­ing ves­sel in the Caribbean Sea.

Though the SOUTH­COM, which en­com­pass­es the Caribbean Sea and wa­ters off South Amer­i­ca, did not pro­vide de­tails be­yond Holsey’s post, re­ports in­di­cate that he had raised con­cerns about US mil­i­tary at­tacks on sus­pect­ed nar­co-traf­fick­ing ves­sels in the Caribbean Sea.

Pun­dits in­di­cate that com­man­ders usu­al­ly stay in these po­si­tions for three to four years.

How­ev­er, Pen­ta­gon spokesper­son Sean Par­nell strong­ly dis­missed re­ports about pol­i­cy dif­fer­ences with Ad­mi­ral Holsey.

“This is a to­tal lie. Nev­er hap­pened,” He wrote on X. “There was no hes­i­ta­tion or con­cerns about this mis­sion.”

But some US leg­is­la­tors con­tin­ue to raise strong con­cern about US mil­i­tary strikes in the Caribbean Sea.

“Pri­or to Trump, I can’t think of a com­bat­ant com­man­der who left his or her post ear­ly, ever,” said De­mo­c­ra­t­ic Con­gress­man Adam Smith of Wash­ing­ton, the se­nior De­mo­c­rat on the US House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives’ Armed Ser­vices Com­mit­tee.

Sen­a­tor Jack Reed, the Rank­ing De­mo­c­rat on the US Sen­ate Armed Ser­vices Com­mit­tee, was al­so very crit­i­cal of Trump’s Caribbean mil­i­tary mis­sion.

“At a mo­ment when US forces are build­ing up across the Caribbean and ten­sions with Venezuela are at a boil­ing point, the de­par­ture of our top mil­i­tary com­man­der in the re­gion sends an alarm­ing sig­nal of in­sta­bil­i­ty with­in the chain of com­mand,” he said in a state­ment.

Ear­li­er this month, af­ter Trump had or­dered the US mil­i­tary to con­duct a lethal strike on a boat in the Caribbean Sea, Reed said “every Amer­i­can should be alarmed that the Pres­i­dent be­lieves he can wage se­cret wars against any­one he choos­es.

“Con­gress alone has the con­sti­tu­tion­al pow­er to de­cide when Amer­i­ca goes to war. The Pres­i­dent can­not launch mil­i­tary cam­paigns and in­vent le­gal cov­er af­ter the fact,” he said.

“Let’s be clear: Drug car­tels are rep­re­hen­si­ble and have caused im­mense suf­fer­ing in our com­mu­ni­ties. US law en­force­ment must be ful­ly equipped and re­sourced to dis­man­tle them. But the Trump ad­min­is­tra­tion has of­fered no cred­i­ble le­gal jus­ti­fi­ca­tion, ev­i­dence, or in­tel­li­gence for these Caribbean strikes,” Reed added. —WASH­ING­TON (CMC)