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One year ago today, on September 1, 2025, the United States initiated its counter-narco operation, codenamed Operation Southern Spear, launching the very first airstrike against a drug-trafficking vessel in the Caribbean. In the twelve months since, the campaign has targeted 69-plus vessels, confirmed 227 kills of cartel operatives, removed Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro from power, and eliminated the Western Hemisphere's number one cartel target.
The first shot was fired September 1, 2025 by a U.S. Navy vessel that destroyed a speedboat departing San Juan de Unare in Venezuela's Sucre state, killing all 11 aboard. President Trump released strike footage the following day. Secretary of State Marco Rubio laid out the new enforcement posture in plain terms: "Instead of interdicting it, on the president's orders, we blew it up. And it'll happen again."
It happened another 67 times. The campaign extended into the Eastern Pacific by October 2025, and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth officially unveiled it as Joint Task Force Southern Spear in November, bringing the Dominican Republic and Ecuador into the co-theater framework. The Republican-controlled Senate twice rejected resolutions attempting to limit the president's authority to press the campaign forward.
The largest single escalation came January 3, 2026. Operation Absolute Resolve placed U.S. forces on the streets of Caracas and extracted Maduro — dismantling a regime that had operated as a cartel protection network for years. On June 12, a joint U.S.-Venezuelan strike in Bolívar state killed Niño Guerrero, leader of Tren de Aragua and the administration's highest-priority cartel target in the hemisphere.
Colombia's Gustavo Petro — whose U.S. visa the State Department revoked after he used a New York sidewalk to urge American soldiers to disobey their orders — has campaigned against the operation as illegal. He and his Interior Minister were subsequently sanctioned by the administration for alleged drug trafficking ties. Washington has dismissed every objection as politically motivated interference from a compromised government.
Year two of Operation Southern Spear begins with the counter-narco campaign firmly embedded across the Caribbean, the Eastern Pacific, and Venezuelan soil. A captured dictator and a dead cartel kingpin define the first twelve months.
