The United States Southern Command released images on Monday of Marines from the 24th Marine Combat Force conducting shooting training at the Camp Santiago Joint Training Center in Puerto Rico, marking the latest public demonstration of the U.S. military presence in the Caribbean.
In its official message, SOUTHCOM described the exercise as an activity to "build the precision and readiness necessary to respond throughout the Western Hemisphere", framed within operations led by the Department of Defense and aligned with the president's priorities of "disrupting illicit drug trafficking, deterring malign actors, and protecting the homeland through continued presence."
The Litoral Combat Force-24 is the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, which took on its mission in the Caribbean on May 29, 2026, under the command of Colonel Ryan Lynch, consisting of more than 1,300 marines and sailors.
The unit is headquartered at the Roosevelt Roads Naval Base in Ceiba, Puerto Rico, reactivated this year with a projected investment of 79 million dollars, and operates under the umbrella of Operation Southern Spear.
Monday's training is not an isolated event: throughout the summer, the unit conducted pick-up zone exercises in August, practiced with FPV drones, and held shooting sessions with M27, M4, and MK 22 rifles, all at Camp Santiago.
This deployment occurs in the context of a sustained escalation of the U.S. military presence in the region.
More than 8,100 soldiers conducted exercises in Puerto Rico between May and August, as confirmed by Governor Jenniffer González-Colón. At the beginning of September, the USS Billings and USS Minneapolis-Saint Paul arrived at the Guantánamo Naval Base.
All of this happens at a time of heightened tension with Cuba.
On March 27, President Trump declared “Cuba is next” at an investment forum in Miami, while mentioning the military successes of his administration in Venezuela and Iran.
Months later, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth stated that Washington "does not rule out conducting a military operation against the Cuban regime."
The Cuban regime has responded with a rhetoric of resistance that many observers describe as more symbolic than effective. It declared 2026 as the "Year of Preparation for Defense" and has been conducting nearly weekly military exercises since January under the doctrine of "People's War," which includes rifle shooting, handling explosives, and combat drills involving civilians, militias, and university students.
The chancellor Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla warned that an attack on Cuba would lead to a "bloodbath," while the deputy foreign minister Carlos Fernández de Cossío accused Washington of trying to "normalize the idea of military aggression" against the island.
The Cuban National Assembly issued a statement regarding a "real and dangerous threat of direct military aggression" from the United States, and Miguel Díaz-Canel stressed this Monday the need for defense preparation to the public, in a speech that contrasts with the island's actual military capabilities in the face of the power displayed by SOUTHCOM just a few miles from its shores.
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