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The President of the United States, Donald Trump, appointed Lieutenant General of the Marines Francis L. Donovan as the new chief of the Southern Command (SouthCom), replacing Admiral Alvin Holsey, who will retire at the end of the year, the Pentagon confirmed on Friday.
The nomination of Donovan, current deputy chief of the Special Operations Command, comes at a time of heightened military tension with Venezuela, following a series of attacks by U.S. forces against vessels suspected of drug trafficking in the Caribbean and the Pacific.
"I do not rule out a war with Venezuela," Trump warned in recent statements, and he maintained that his administration "will not tolerate the expansion of narco-terrorism or the alliances of the illegitimate regime of Nicolás Maduro with hostile powers to the United States."
The Admiral Alvin Holsey, who took command of Southcom in 2023, had announced his retirement in October.
According to sources cited by The New York Times, Holsey expressed his "concern" about the intensity of the attacks against the so-called Venezuelan narcolanchas, of which the U.S. has not presented any evidence.
The American newspaper pointed out that Holsey internally questioned some military operations off the coast of Venezuela, in which over a hundred people have died since the middle of the year due to these attacks.
According to a report by AFP based on official data, the U.S. bombings have resulted in at least 100 deaths, including five crew members killed in the latest operation carried out on Thursday.
The regime of Nicolás Maduro has denounced the incursions as part of an alleged "imperialist plot" to overthrow him and seize Venezuelan oil.
The Colombian president, Gustavo Petro, also called for an investigation into these attacks and stated that many have affected fishing boats.
Washington maintains that the actions are part of the Caribbean Hammer Operation, aimed at dismantling drug trafficking routes and networks controlled by armed groups linked to chavismo.
The general Francis L. Donovan is a veteran with over 30 years of service in the Marine Corps. He has led special operations in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Syria, and currently serves as the deputy commander of the U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM).
Pentagon sources describe Donovan as a pragmatic official and a strong advocate for military cooperation with democratic allies in the hemisphere, particularly Colombia and Brazil, and a harsh critic of the regimes in Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Cuba.
"The priority of the new commander will be to ensure the stability of the hemisphere and protect the strategic interests of the United States against the combined threats of drug trafficking and authoritarian regimes," stated Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth in the official announcement.
If confirmed by the Senate, Donovan will take command of Southern Command in January 2026, from its headquarters in Doral, Florida, which is the epicenter of U.S. military operations in Latin America and the Caribbean.
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