The military commander overseeing the Pentagon’s escalating attacks against boats in the Caribbean Sea that the Trump administration says are smuggling drugs is stepping down, two U.S. officials said on Thursday.
The officer, Adm. Alvin Holsey, is leaving his job as head of the U.S. Southern Command, which oversees all operations in Central and South America, even as the Pentagon has rapidly built up some 10,000 forces in the region in what it says is a major counterdrug and counterterrorism mission.
It was unclear why Admiral Holsey is leaving now, less than a year into his tenure, and in the midst of the biggest operation in his 37-year career.
The White House declined to comment. The Defense Department did not immediately comment.
Since early September, U.S. Special Operations forces have struck at least five boats off the Venezuelan coast that the White House says were transporting drugs, killing 27 people. American officials have privately made it clear that the main goal is to drive Nicolás Maduro, Venezuela’s authoritarian leader, from power.
But a range of specialists in the laws governing the use of force have disputed the Trump administration’s claim that it can lawfully kill people suspected of drug trafficking like enemy troops instead of arresting them for prosecution. As a matter of domestic law, Congress has not authorized any armed conflict.
As a matter of international law, for a nonstate group to qualify as a belligerent in an armed conflict — meaning its members can be targeted for killing based on their status alone, not because of anything they specifically do — it must be an “organized armed group” with a centralized command structure, and engaging in hostilities.
Admiral Holsey, who is Black, becomes the latest in a line of more than a dozen military leaders, many of them people of color and women, who have left their jobs this year. Most have been fired by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth or pushed out.
Mr. Hegseth fired the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr., who is Black; the first woman to command the Navy, Adm. Lisa Franchetti; and the U.S. military’s representative to the NATO military committee, Vice Adm. Shoshana Chatfield. He also pushed out Lt. Gen. Jeffrey A. Kruse, the head of the Defense Intelligence Agency.
In August, the Air Force’s top uniformed officer, Gen. David Allvin, announced that he would retire early — two years into a four-year term.
It was not clear on Thursday who would replace Admiral Holsey, who just this week visited the islands of Antigua and Barbuda as well as Grenada.
News of the admiral’s departure comes a day after The New York Times reported that the Trump administration had secretly authorized the C.I.A. to conduct covert action in Venezuela.
Mr. Trump acknowledged on Wednesday that he had authorized the covert action and said the United States was considering strikes on Venezuelan territory.
All of these developments come as the U.S. military is planning its own possible escalation, drawing up options for Mr. Trump to consider, including strikes inside Venezuela.
While Admiral Holsey has been the highest-ranking military overseeing the military strikes, the decision to carry them out has been driven by the White House and the strikes themselves have been conducted by Special Operations forces.
The Trump administration has justified its attacks on suspected drug smugglers as national self-defense at a time of high overdose deaths in the United States. But the surge in overdoses has been driven by fentanyl, which comes from Mexico, not South America.
The size and scope of the U.S. military buildup in the Caribbean region is significant. There are now about 10,000 U.S. troops, most of them at bases in Puerto Rico, but also some 2,200 Marines on amphibious assault ships. In all, the Navy has eight warships and a submarine in the Caribbean.
Eric Schmitt is a national security correspondent for The Times. He has reported on U.S. military affairs and counterterrorism for more than three decades.
Tyler Pager is a White House correspondent for The Times, covering President Trump and his administration.
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