Editor’s note: This is a developing story.
The U.S. Navy commander who supervised military strikes in the Caribbean Sea is leaving his post, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced on social media late Thursday.
In a surprising development, Adm. Alvin Holsey will step down as head of U.S. Southern Command, a position he’d held for less than a year.
“On behalf of the Department of War, we extend our deepest gratitude to Admiral Alvin Holsey for his more than 37 years of distinguished service to our nation as he plans to retire at year’s end,” Hegseth wrote in a post on X, referring to the Defense Department as the Department of War after President Donald Trump signed an executive order allowing DOD personnel to use the name as a secondary title for the agency.
Hegseth did not expound on the reasons for Holsey’s departure. The New York Times reported Thursday that Holsey had voiced concerns about the U.S. military’s mission in Central and South America and the recent strikes on alleged drug boats off the Venezuelan coast.
Trump recently granted permission to the Central Intelligence Agency to conduct covert operations inside Venezuela and confirmed he is considering land operations in the country.
The announcement of Holsey’s departure came two days after another military strike on an alleged drug-carrying boat near Venezuela. It marked the fifth fatal strike since early September on what the Trump administration has identified as drug-carrying vessels in the region, bringing the total death toll to 27 people.
Trump began ramping up counter-narcotics efforts on his first day in office when he issued an executive order designating cartels as foreign terrorist organizations, thus giving the military the green light to target and destroy those that fell under the umbrella.
As of September, there were eight vessels assigned to the Southern Command area of operations in support of counter-narcotics efforts.
At a military gathering at Marine Corps Base Quantico, Virginia, on Sept. 30, Trump provided further justification for the strikes when he claimed that every targeted drug boat “kills about 25,000 people.”
Before his time as commander of U.S. Southern Command, Holsey deployed at sea with the USS Jesse L. Brown, USS Nicholson, USS Vreeland, USS Vella Gulf, USS Gettysburg and USS Simpson, according to his Navy biography.
He began serving as director of Task Force One Navy in 2020, and from 2021 to 2022, he served as deputy chief of naval personnel and commander of Navy Personnel Command. He served as military deputy commander of U.S. Southern Command before taking over as commander in November 2024.
Riley Ceder is a reporter at Military Times, where he covers breaking news, criminal justice, investigations, and cyber. He previously worked as an investigative practicum student at The Washington Post, where he contributed to the Abused by the Badge investigation.
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