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The U.S. military is upgrading a long-abandoned Cold War–era naval base in the Caribbean, which may indicate preparations for possible operations against Venezuela.
As reported by Ukrinform, this comes from a Reuters investigation.
According to the news agency’s photos, construction work at the former Roosevelt Roads Naval Station in Puerto Rico—closed by the U.S. Navy more than 20 years ago—was underway on September 17, with crews clearing and restoring paved routes leading to the runway.
Before the Navy withdrew from the site in 2004, Roosevelt Roads was one of the largest U.S. naval bases in the world.
One U.S. official said the base has a strategic location and offers ample space for storing military equipment.
In addition to upgrading the landing and takeoff facilities at Roosevelt Roads, the United States is also building facilities at civilian airports in Puerto Rico and on the island of Saint Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands.
These two U.S. territories lie roughly 800 kilometers from Venezuela.
Reuters spoke with three U.S. military officials and three maritime experts, who said the new construction in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands points to preparations that could allow U.S. forces to conduct operations inside Venezuela. Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro has recently asserted multiple times that the United States seeks to remove him from power.
The U.S. military buildup in the region is the largest since 1994, when the United States sent more than 20,000 service members to Haiti for Operation Uphold Democracy.
As Ukrinform reported, Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro has appealed to Russia, China, and Iran to bolster the country’s military capabilities amid the U.S. troop buildup in the Caribbean.
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