U.S. SOUTHCOM chief retires amid Row with Pentagon over Caribbean Killer strikes. Congress members introduce bill to repeal US embargo on Cuba
Adm. Alvin Holsey officially retired on Friday as commander of US Southern Command, handing over leadership to his deputy during a ceremony in Florida, marking the end of a tenure of less than a year amid reported internal disagreements over US military operations in the Caribbean.
Holsey will be succeeded by Air Force Lt. Gen. Evan Pettus, who has served as deputy commander of Southern Command since Holsey assumed the role last year. The command oversees US military operations across most of Latin America and the Caribbean Sea.
The retirement was announced in October by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, coming shortly after the United States carried out its fifth strike on an alleged drug trafficking vessel off the coast of Venezuela. According to sources previously cited by CNN, tensions had emerged between Holsey and senior Pentagon leadership over the scope and legality of such operations.
Hegseth reportedly believed Holsey was not acting aggressively enough against drug traffickers in the region, while Southern Command officials raised concerns about the legal basis for the strikes. The dispute culminated in an October 6 meeting at the Pentagon involving Holsey, Hegseth, and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine, during which Holsey offered to step down, an offer that was ultimately not acted upon.
US kills three in strike on vessel in Caribbean
The US military carried out a strike against an alleged drug-trafficking vessel in the eastern Pacific Ocean on Thursday, killing three people, the US Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) reported.
Last week the military carried out a strike that killed two people in the Pacific Ocean, conducted under the direction of SOUTHCOM Commander Gen. Francis L. Donovan.
According to SOUTCHOM’s X statement, “On Feb. 13, at the direction of #SOUTHCOM commander Gen. Francis L. Donovan, Joint Task Force Southern Spear conducted a lethal kinetic strike on a vessel operated by Designated Terrorist Organizations.”
The deaths bring the total number of people killed in strikes on suspected drug boats under Operation Southern Spear to at least 122. No evidence has been provided to prove that these vessels were used for narcotics-related operations.
US authorities reported that no US military personnel were injured.
Congress members introduce bill to repeal US embargo on Cuba
Democratic Representative Jim McGovern of Massachusetts and Human Rights Commission Co-Chair Tom Lantos introduced legislation aimed at repealing the legal framework underpinning the US economic embargo on Cuba, in place for more than six decades.
The proposal, identified as HR 7521 and titled the “United States-Cuba Trade Act,” seeks to eliminate or amend multiple laws enacted over the years that restrict trade, academic and cultural exchanges, telecommunications, and travel between the two countries.
In the Senate, a companion bill, S.136, was introduced by Democratic Senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley of Oregon. The initiative follows recent measures by the Trump administration imposing tariffs on countries that trade oil with Cuba, a move critics say further deepens energy restrictions on the island.
McGovern questioned both the rationale and effectiveness of the longstanding embargo. “The United States has maintained an embargo against Cuba for sixty years. And for sixty years, we have waited for it to achieve what politicians in Washington claim it will do: bring freedom or democracy to the Cuban people. It has failed.”
Lawmakers criticize the impact of sanctions
McGovern argued that US sanctions disproportionately affect ordinary Cubans rather than political elites. “It is not the Cuban elites who are harmed by our policies, but ordinary people and their families who are denied food, medicine, and basic products,” he said.
He also linked current policy to migration patterns. “The Trump administration claims to want to reduce migration, but its own hardline approach only encourages migration to the United States.”
UN experts warn US fuel blockade on Cuba violates int’l law
UN human rights experts today condemned the executive order of the US government declaring a supposed national emergency and imposing tariffs on countries that supply oil to Cuba.
In a press release, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Press Office criticized the provision signed by the President of the United States on January 29, 2026, which imposes a fuel blockade on Cuba, according to the UN experts who asserted that the measure violates international law and poses a serious threat to a democratic and equitable international order.
“This is an extreme form of unilateral economic coercion with extraterritorial effects, whereby the US seeks to exert coercion over the sovereign state of Cuba and compel third sovereign states to modify their lawful trade relations, under the threat of punitive trade measures,” they said.
The experts also dismissed claims that Cuba poses an “unusual and extraordinary threat” to US national security or supports “transnational terrorist groups,” describing such allegations as lacking credibility.
The statement emphasized that “in the absence of authorization from the UN Security Council, the executive order has no basis in collective security and constitutes a unilateral act contrary to the international law.”
“There is no power under international law that allows to impose economic sanctions on third states for engaging in lawful trade with another sovereign country,” they added.
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