Military hovercraft and a large logistics ship of the United States Navy were documented this Sunday at the Ponce Dock in southern Puerto Rico, marking a new sign of the ongoing deployment that Washington maintains in the Caribbean.
The Puerto Rican photographer Michael Bonet posted on X images of at least two military hovercraft of the LCAC type at the Ponce Dock at 1:08 PM on Sunday, identified as LCAC-04 of the U.S. Navy, alongside military ground vehicles of the Humvee type in the port area.
Minutes later, at 1:32 PM, Bonet also photographed the Roy P. Benavidez, also known as USNS Benavidez (T-AKR-306) docked at the same pier, a roll-on/roll-off strategic cargo ship of the Bob Hope class specialized in transporting vehicles and heavy equipment.
The USNS Benavidez measures 279 meters in length and has the capacity to transport up to 380 military vehicles, including M1 Abrams tanks, as well as 800 containers, with a displacement of 62,000 tons at full load.
Their presence in Ponce suggests the movement or prepositioning of heavy material in the Caribbean region, within the framework of the Southern Lance Operation, the largest U.S. military deployment in the Caribbean since the Missile Crisis of 1962.
The LCACs are amphibious assault hovercraft capable of transporting troops, armored vehicles, and equipment from ships to shore, even on beaches without port infrastructure, making them vital assets in any landing operation.
The sighting occurs just three days after the return of the ship where Maduro was transported, which reappeared in Puerto Rico last Thursday: the USS Iwo Jima (LHD-7), which arrived in Ponce with at least 10 V-22 Osprey tiltrotors and an SH-60 Seahawk helicopter on its flight deck.
It was precisely the USS Iwo Jima that received Nicolás Maduro after his capture in Caracas on January 3, 2026, as part of Operation Absolute Resolution.
Trump published the first image of captured Maduro, with his face covered and escorted by armed personnel at the moment the former Venezuelan president arrived on the deck of that ship.
Maduro was subsequently transferred to the naval base in Guantánamo and then to New York, where he arrived handcuffed at the DEA offices to face federal charges of narco-terrorism.
Operation Southern Lance began on September 1, 2025, under the command of General Francis L. Donovan, commander of Southern Command, with the aim of combating drug trafficking in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific.
Until mid-May 2026, the operation had executed approximately 52 kinetic attacks, resulting in over 163 individuals eliminated.
On May 4 and 5, U.S. forces took down two alleged drug traffickers in a boat in the Caribbean, and on May 9, another lethal attack was carried out in the region as part of the same operation.
The Port of Ponce has established itself as the main logistics base for these operations in the Caribbean, with a sustained pattern of military deployment that the U.S. maintains in the region since the launch of Operation Southern Lance.
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