US forces will use Dominican Republic base in cartel campaign

Eric Martin and Jim Wyss, Bloomberg News on Nov 26, 2025

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The Trump administration will use a Dominican Republic air base and airport in its campaign against drug cartels, strengthening cooperation in the Caribbean, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Wednesday alongside the nation’s president.

Aircraft will be refueled and logistical tasks will take place at the San Isidro base and Las Americas international airport near Santo Domingo, according to President Luis Abinader. He cautioned, however, that the agreement would be “technical, limited and temporary” to confront the danger narcotics traffickers pose to the island nation, which has a history of unwelcome American interventions.

“Our country faces a real threat,” Abinader said, standing beside Hegseth at the national palace in Santo Domingo. “That threat does not recognize borders or flags, it destroys families, and it has used our territory as part of its routes for decades.”

The Dominican Republic — known for its beach resorts — has long served as a major transshipment point for drugs on their way to the U.S. and Europe.

Hegseth traveled to Santo Domingo as President Donald Trump’s administration mounts the largest deployment in the region in decades to confront alleged traffickers. It comes two days after the U.S. designated Venezuela’s so-called Cartel of the Suns as a foreign terrorist organization.

The American government says that the group is operated by senior army officers and led by President Nicolas Maduro himself, accusations that Venezuela rejects.

On Tuesday, General Dan Caine, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, visited Trinidad and Tobago for high-level meetings focused on the drug threat. Trinidad, which lies just off Venezuela’s coast, has become key to the U.S. military buildup in the region, with U.S. warships docking in Port of Spain.

The USS Gerald R. Ford, the world’s largest aircraft carrier, arrived in the Caribbean this month, heightening speculation that the U.S. may be preparing to strike targets inside Venezuela, a prospect Trump himself has raised. Washington has carried out numerous strikes against alleged drug boats in the Caribbean and the Pacific Ocean, killing more than 80 people.

Critics say the strikes amount to extra-judicial executions. Trump defended them, saying the targets belong to international criminal organizations responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Americans from drug overdoses. He has alternated between suggesting he plans to expand the strikes to land, and that he plans to speak directly with Maduro.