The admiral in charge of US military forces in Latin America will retire two years early on Friday, amid rising tensions with Venezuela that include Wednesday’s seizure of an oil tanker and more than 20 deadly strikes on suspected drug-smuggling boats.
Three U.S. officials and two people familiar with the matter told Reuters that Admiral Alvin Holsey was pushed out by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. Two officials said Hegseth had grown frustrated with Southern Command as he sought to flex US military operations and planning in the region.
One official confirmed that discussion of whether Hegseth would dismiss Holsey surfaced roughly two weeks before the surprise announcement of his departure.
Holsey has not publicly explained his early retirement. Some officials have privately speculated he opposed recent U.S. strikes on suspected drug vessels in the Caribbean. However, in a closed-door meeting with senior lawmakers on Tuesday, Holsey insisted his decision had nothing to do with the operations in his command, according to comments by Republican lawmaker Mike Rogers published in Politico.
Holsey will formally hand over command to his deputy, Air Force Lt Gen. Evan Pettus, during a ceremony Friday morning. Pettus will serve as acting head of US Southern Command.
One source familiar with the matter said President Donald Trump is expected to nominate Lieutenant General Frank Donovan, vice commander of US Special Operations Command, as Holsey’s permanent successor. The source cautioned that the nomination has not yet been formalized and could change.
Holsey’s premature retirement is rare but not unprecedented. In 2008, Central Command commander Admiral William Fallon also retired a year into his term overseeing US forces in the Middle East after making comments about Iran and other issues that irked the Bush administration.
Holsey is the latest in a series of senior officers to leave their positions since Hegseth took over the Pentagon. Some departures have been abrupt, including those of the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, CQ Brown and the top naval officer, Lisa Franchetti, who was the first woman to hold that post.
Holsey’s departure comes as the Trump administration signals a major foreign policy shift. A strategy document released this week called for reviving the 19th-century Monroe Doctrine, which declared the Western Hemisphere to be Washington’s zone of influence.
A major U.S. military buildup of warships in the Caribbean — including the deployment of an aircraft carrier strike group — has underscored that policy shift, along with new U.S. training deployments to a revived jungle school in Panama.
In recent months, Trump has intensified pressure on Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, a close ally of Russia and China whom Washington accuses of drug trafficking — allegations Maduro denies. Maduro claims the US military buildup aims to topple him and seize Venezuela’s oil resources.
The US Coast Guard’s seizure of an oil tanker on Wednesday was the first interdiction of Venezuelan crude amid US sanctions that have been in force since 2019. Reuters reported on Thursday that the United States is preparing to intercept more ships carrying Venezuelan oil.
Trump’s military operations against alleged drug smugglers have been under intense scrutiny following a September 2 decision to launch a second strike on a suspected drug boat in the Caribbean.
The Defense Department’s Law of War Manual forbids attacks on combatants who are incapacitated, unconscious or shipwrecked, as long as they abstain from hostilities and do not attempt to escape. The manual cites firing upon shipwreck survivors as an example of a “clearly illegal” order that should be refused.
The Trump administration has framed the attacks as a war with drug cartels, calling them armed groups and saying the drugs being carried to the United States kill Americans.