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The United States Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) released an official image on Wednesday of a MV-22B Osprey aircraft from the Marine Corps preparing to land aboard the amphibious assault ship USS Iwo Jima in the Caribbean Sea.
The publication does not mention Cuba or any specific country. The exact area of the operation within the Caribbean was not disclosed, but it does specify that it takes place within the framework of the Southern Spear Operation.
The SOUTHCOM statement indicates that "U.S. military forces deployed in the area of responsibility of Southern Command support Operation Southern Spear, led by the Department of Defense and the president's priority to disrupt illicit drug trafficking and protect the homeland."
The MV-22B Osprey is a tiltrotor aircraft—technology that combines pivoting rotors to take off and land vertically like a helicopter and then tilts them to fly like a turboprop airplane—capable of transporting up to 24 combat Marines at a cruising speed of 240 knots.
The aircraft belongs to the 22nd MEU (22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit), embarked on the USS Iwo Jima since late August 2025.
The operation involves SOUTHCOM, the USMC (United States Marine Corps), the U.S. Navy, MARFORSOUTH (Marine Forces South), and NAVSOUS4THFLT (Fourth Naval Fleet South), the marine and naval components of the Southern Command responsible for the Caribbean, Central America, and South America.
Operation Southern Spear was launched in September 2025 under the Trump administration to combat drug trafficking in the Caribbean and the Eastern Pacific.
This Tuesday, the operation had accumulated more than 50 lethal kinetic attacks and approximately 170 deaths, including two the day before this image was published, categorized as "suspected narcoterrorists."
The deployment represents the largest U.S. military presence in the Caribbean since the Cuban Missile Crisis in October 1962, with an estimated total cost of around 3 billion dollars and peaks of up to 20 million dollars per day.
The USS Iwo Jima operates alongside the USS San Antonio and the USS Fort Lauderdale as part of the Iwo Jima Amphibious Ready Group (ARG).
In January 2026, the U.S. repositioned these ships off the northern coast of Cuba, although the Caribbean is a vast region and current operations are not limited to that area.
On April 28, the U.S. also activated the FLEX2026 military exercise in Key West, incorporating artificial intelligence, unmanned systems, and traditional naval forces, in a sustained escalation of the U.S. military presence in the immediate surroundings of Cuba.
The Cuban regime has been identified by Washington as a player that facilitates regional drug trafficking, although official statements from SOUTHCOM regarding Operation Southern Spear do not explicitly mention the island.
The Southern Command has warned that "the region is not a permissive environment for malicious actors or illegal activities."
This Monday, Trump claimed that he received "94% of the Cuban vote in the United States" and stated that this generates a commitment to his voters. "I have an obligation to do something for Cuba," he said.
The president reiterated that the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, likely returning from Iran, may make a strategic stop in the Caribbean, to anchor "a couple of hundred yards off the Cuban coast."
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