{"id":338983,"date":"2025-10-28T18:57:15","date_gmt":"2025-10-28T18:57:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/338983\/"},"modified":"2025-10-28T18:57:15","modified_gmt":"2025-10-28T18:57:15","slug":"u-s-military-to-sign-ndas-tied-to-latin-america-mission-reuters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/338983\/","title":{"rendered":"U.S. military to sign NDAs tied to Latin America mission: Reuters"},"content":{"rendered":"

US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth addresses senior military officers at Marine Corps Base Quantico in Quantico, Virginia, on September 30, 2025. <\/p>\n

Andrew Harnik | Afp | Getty Images<\/p>\n

U.S.\u00a0military officials involved with President\u00a0Donald Trump’s<\/a>\u00a0expanding operations in\u00a0Latin America\u00a0have been asked to sign non-disclosure agreements, three\u00a0U.S.\u00a0officials say, a development that raises new questions about a military buildup that\u00a0Venezuela\u00a0fears may lead to an invasion.<\/p>\n

The step is highly unusual, given that\u00a0U.S.\u00a0military officials are already required to shield national security secrets from public view, and comes as lawmakers in\u00a0Congress\u00a0say they are being kept in the dark about key aspects of the\u00a0mission.<\/p>\n

The officials who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity did not know how many members of the\u00a0U.S. Defense Department\u00a0had been asked to sign the agreements and did not offer further details on the scope of the NDAs.<\/p>\n

While the\u00a0Defense Department\u00a0has turned to NDAs from time to time since\u00a0Pete Hegseth\u00a0became defense secretary in January, the Pentagon’s use of non-disclosure agreements specific to activities in\u00a0Latin America\u00a0has not been previously reported. The Pentagon announced last week the deployment of the Gerald Ford aircraft carrier group to\u00a0Latin America, escalating a military buildup that experts say far exceeds any requirement for counter-narcotics operations — the stated intent of the\u00a0U.S.\u00a0mission\u00a0so far. The\u00a0U.S.\u00a0military has carried out at least 13 strikes against alleged drug vessels, mostly in the\u00a0Caribbean, since early September, killing about 57 people. The Pentagon has provided few details about the people targeted but has acknowledged some of them include people from\u00a0Venezuela,\u00a0Colombia\u00a0and\u00a0Ecuador.<\/p>\n

The carrier strike group adds another roughly 10,000 troops and enormous firepower to a buildup that already includes guided missile destroyers, F-35 fighter jets, a nuclear submarine and around 6,500 troops.<\/p>\n

The Pentagon has not explained why such firepower is required for the counter-narcotics operations.<\/p>\n

Hegseth has taken a series of steps to try to control the flow of information since taking over the Pentagon in January. He told Pentagon staff they must obtain permission before interacting with members of\u00a0Congress, according to an\u00a0Oct. 15\u00a0memo. He has also launched leak investigations and demanded Pentagon-based journalists sign a new press access policy, taking away the credentials of those who did not.<\/p>\n

The Pentagon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n

Drug trade<\/p>\n

Trump’s administration has been tying the governments of\u00a0Venezuela\u00a0and, more recently, neighboring\u00a0Colombia\u00a0directly to the drug trade, allegations denied by both governments. The claims, however, have raised concerns that the\u00a0U.S.\u00a0military might be tasked with carrying out attacks in both countries.<\/p>\n

Senator\u00a0Lindsey Graham, a senior Republican lawmaker with close ties to Trump, suggested in a television interview on\u00a0Sunday Trump\u00a0would soon outline to\u00a0Congress\u00a0“future potential military operations against\u00a0Venezuela\u00a0and\u00a0Colombia.”<\/p>\n

Washington\u00a0in August doubled its reward for information leading to Maduro’s arrest to\u00a0$50 million, accusing him of links to drug trafficking and criminal groups that Maduro denies. Tensions between\u00a0the United States\u00a0and\u00a0Venezuela’s\u00a0neighbor,\u00a0Colombia, have also spiked in recent days, with Trump accusing Colombian President\u00a0Gustavo Petro\u00a0of being an “illegal drug leader” and a “bad guy” – language Petro’s government says is offensive.\u00a0Washington\u00a0on Friday imposed sanctions on Petro.<\/p>\n

Graham said Trump had all the authority he needed to carry out operations in\u00a0Latin America.<\/p>\n

“These military assets are moving forward to deal with a country that’s got blood on its hands when it comes to Americans by flooding our country with drugs from\u00a0Venezuela\u00a0and\u00a0Colombia,” Graham told\u00a0CBS News’\u00a0“Face the Nation” with\u00a0Margaret Brennan.<\/p>\n

“So, I hope Maduro would leave peacefully, but I don’t think he’s going to stay around much longer.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth addresses senior military officers at Marine Corps Base Quantico in Quantico, Virginia,…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":338984,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[76,81,262,77,69,3350,51,50,80,52,67,32322],"class_list":{"0":"post-338983","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-breaking-news-politics","9":"tag-business-news","10":"tag-defense","11":"tag-donald-j-trump","12":"tag-donald-trump","13":"tag-foreign-policy","14":"tag-headlines","15":"tag-news","16":"tag-politics","17":"tag-top-stories","18":"tag-united-states","19":"tag-venezuela"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115453325816252763","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338983","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=338983"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338983\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/338984"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=338983"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=338983"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=338983"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}