Head of US Southern Command steps down days after visit to Caribbean

The head of the U.S. Southern Command, responsible for military operations in Central and South America and the Caribbean, is stepping down after less than a year on the job.

Navy Adm. Alvin Holsey, who took charge of the Doral, Florida-based military command in November, announced Thursday that he will retire from the service effective Dec. 12. The posting is usually a three-year assignment.

Holsey began his tenure as commander of SOUTHCOM in an emotional, history-making ceremony in which he became the first Black American to lead the U.S. combatant command after replacing the first woman, Army Gen. Laura Richardson, in the role.

“We are making history today,” Lloyd J. Austin III, secretary of Defense at the time, said as he presided over the change-of-command ceremony at SOUTHCOM headquarters, in front of defense officials from 32 Latin America and Caribbean countries and members of Congress. “The first woman commander of SOUTHCOM passes the baton to the first African-American commander of SOUTHCOM.”

Holsey’s announcement caps a career that has spanned more than 37 years. His service has included deployments aboard U.S. Navy frigates and cruisers, missions on the Navy’s first hybrid electric propulsion warship and commanding a helicopter anti-submarine squadron.

“It’s been an honor to serve our nation, the American people and support and defend the Constitution for over 37 years,” Holsey said in a statement posted on X. “Serving as your commander and deputy for the past 34 months has been a tremendous honor.”

Holsey’s unexpected departure comes as the Pentagon faces a wave of high-profile dismissals and resignations, and amid growing controversy over the build up of U.S. military presence in the southern Caribbean off the coast of Venezuela to allegedly target drug traffickers.

On Thursday, a woman in Trinidad and Tobago told The Miami Herald that her 26-year-old son, Chad “Charpo” Joseph, was among six people killed two days earlier when U.S. military drones blew up the fifth boat since the operations against alleged drug-carrying vessels were launched. Neither the U.S. nor Trinidadian governments have identified those who were on board, though President Donald Trump confirmed on his Truth Social site that he had ordered the strike and that it had occurred in SOUTHCOM’S area of responsibility.

The U.S. military campaign has received public support from Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Kamla Persad Bissessar, but has drawn scrutiny from other regional leaders and opposition figures. The prime ministers of Barbados and St. Vincent and the Grenadines raised the issue during their recent addresses to the United Nations General Assembly in New York, while former Jamaica Prime Minister P.J. Patterson warned that the strikes erode the idea that the Caribbean is a zone of peace and threatens countries’ sovereignty.

The attacks, he told The Jamaica Gleaner, are “fundamentally dangerous and a horrible erosion of regional leaders’ commitment to sovereignty in the region.”

SOUTHCOM, one of six unified combatant commands in the U.S. military, oversees U.S. defense and security cooperation with partner nations in the Caribbean, Central America and South America, as well as U.S. military operations in the region.

Earlier this week, Holsey made his first visit to the Eastern Caribbean. He traveled to Antigua and Barbuda and Grenada, which confirmed last week that Washington had asked for permission to install a radar system at its Maurice Bishop International Airport, which was originally built by Cuba.

SOUTHCOM said the meetings between Holsey and leaders, including Antigua and Barbuda’s chief of defense and the royal Grenada police acting commissioner, “centered on reaffirming the longstanding security collaboration with both nations and shared challenges that affect the Eastern Caribbean, including transnational organized crime, illicit trafficking and border security.”

The statement added that “Antigua and Barbuda and Grenada are vital contributors to the collective efforts of like-minded nations aimed at strengthening security in the Eastern Caribbean.”

It is unclear whether Hosley and Grenada Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell discussed the proposal for the radar sites, but ahead of Hosley’s arrival in St. John on Monday, Antigua Prime Minister Gaston Browne left no doubt where he stood.

Browne announced in an interview that his twin-island nation “has absolutely no interest in hosting any form of military assets here in the country.”

In his farewell message posed on X, Hosley said the team “has made lasting contributions to the defense of our nation.”

“I am confident that you will forge ahead, focused on your mission that strengths our nation and endures its longevity as a beacon of freedom around the globe,” he said, before urging them to “Keep Charging!”

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