# Dominican Republic opens restricted airport and air base areas for US anti-drug operations
The Dominican Republic said on November 26, 2025 that it will allow the United States to use restricted areas at San Isidro Air Base and Las Americas International Airport for logistical operations tied to anti-drug missions. The agreement came during a visit by US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to Santo Domingo and deepens a campaign Washington says is aimed at trafficking networks in the Caribbean.
President Luis Abinader said the authorization is limited in time and covers aircraft refuelling as well as the transport of equipment and personnel. Hegseth confirmed what he described as the temporary deployment of US service members and aircraft. He cast the mission in sweeping terms, saying Washington is deadly serious about the counter-narcotics effort and that it would take a more offensive approach against what he called narco-terrorists.
The announcement sits inside a much larger regional military build-up. The United States has already designated the alleged Venezuelan Cartel de los Soles as a foreign terrorist organization, a move that gives the Trump administration more legal cover for pressure on Venezuelan authorities. The report says Washington has carried out strikes on alleged drug smugglers since early September, destroyed more than 20 vessels it says were used for trafficking, and has yet to make public evidence that its targets posed a threat to the United States or were smuggling narcotics.
The Dominican decision also matters because the country already cooperates with US anti-drug efforts. Authorities earlier in the month said they had seized about 500 kilograms of cocaine in a joint operation with US forces. That cooperation suggests the new facility access is not a sudden break but a further step in an existing security partnership.
Still, the regional reaction has been sharply critical. The report notes that the US has deployed the world's biggest aircraft carrier and ten other ships to the Caribbean, while also sending B-52 and B-1B bombers near Venezuela's coast. Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro says Washington is using drug trafficking as a pretext for regime change and to seize oil.
The arrangement is therefore more than a technical logistics deal. It signals that Caribbean governments may be pulled into the centre of an escalating US campaign that mixes anti-drug enforcement, military force and pressure on Venezuela. Abinader's limited-time authorisation gives Washington a foothold, but it also raises questions about how far the operation will expand and how much evidence the US will eventually provide to justify it.
For now, the Dominican Republic's move makes clear that the anti-drug mission has moved beyond patrols and interdictions. It now involves access to regional facilities, military personnel and air operations on foreign soil, all under a rhetoric that increasingly frames traffickers as wartime enemies rather than criminal suspects.
