Inside the secret forest base that experts say proves Trump is preparing for imminent INVASION
The island of Puerto Rico is seemingly preparing for war.
The 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit has for weeks been sharing a deluge of Rambo-esque training images from the usually serene Caribbean island to its official Facebook page.
The marines are seen rappelling from helicopters down into the water or storming the beaches in hovercrafts before thundering off in tanks. Other heavily armed service members drive buggies over the dirt roads or slash their way through dense tropical forest.
Perhaps it's only a coincidence that the tropical terrain resembles that of another nation roughly 500 miles directly to the south: Venezuela. Maybe it is just serendipity that the US military is now rapidly modernizing a Cold War-era naval base in Puerto Rico, even as President Donald Trump ramps up his rhetoric against Venezuela's dictatorial leader Nicolas Maduro.
But the military analysts that spoke to the Daily Mail do not think that this is an accident.
'The United States is trying to make sure it has sufficient infrastructure for whatever the president might order,' said Mark Montgomery, a retired rear admiral who spent time in Puerto Rico in the 1980s.
Montgomery's grandfather was commander of a fleet air wing in the Caribbean which oversaw the Roosevelt Roads – aka Rosey Roads – base in the 1940s.
When the president was asked on Sunday whether the Venezuelan strongman's days are numbered, he replied: 'I think so, yeah.'
US Marines with the 22nd Expeditionary Unit are pictured on a training exercise in Puerto Rico
The Marines are pictured practicing amphibious landings on Puerto Rico's beaches
A fleet of warships off the coast of Puerto Rico has been enlisted to assist the training
Marines are seen trekking through the jungle in a landscape which is similar to Venezuela's
Then administration officials told The New York Times on Tuesday that a series of options had been drawn up, including direct attacks on military units protecting Maduro, and seizing Venezuela's oil fields. The Latin American nation has the world's largest oil reserves, but decades of underinvestment and mismanagement have left them largely stagnant.
'If the president wants an aggressive air campaign, or the pre-positioning of air elements to use against Maduro, you're going to want to have as many functional forward airports and logistics sites as possible. Roosevelt Roads is well-positioned for this mission,' Montgomery told the Daily Mail.
Twenty years ago, the US military closed Roosevelt Roads, a 7,800-acre naval base near the most eastern point on the island. But Puerto Ricans tell the Daily Mail that over the last two months the troops have returned to the nearby town of Ceiba. And now satellite photos obtained this week by Reuters show the scale of activity at Roosevelt Roads and across the island.
Since September 17, teams of workers have been observed clearing and repaving taxiways leading to the runways, which were overgrown and unusable. The 11,000-ft runway itself was still serviceable, but until recently it was not being heavily used.
In recent weeks F-35 stealth fighters have been photographed landing at the complex, with helicopters, Ospreys and cargo planes passing through.
Eliezer Encarnacion, 31, said he was still getting used to the aircraft flying over his home.
'You go out of your door to see what plane it is, and what they're moving,' he told local newspaper El Vocero. 'Before there wasn't much activity, but now everyone's posting what they see on social media. We have to get used to it.'
Long-range bombers have also passed overhead en route to Venezuelan air space: In late October, supersonic Lancer bombers flew to the Venezuelan coast from Dyess Air Force Base in Abilene, Texas and Grand Forks Air Force Base in North Dakota. Weeks later, three B-52 bombers took off from Barksdale Air Force Base in Shreveport, Louisiana, and circled off the coast of Venezuela before returning to base.
Nicolas Maduro, the Venezuelan leader, now has a $50 million bounty for his capture
A US Air Force Boeing C-17 Globemaster takes off from Roosevelt Roads on September 11
'The upgrades at Roosevelt Roads don't change things much for the bomber force,' said Montgomery, a senior fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies. 'But for fighter forces and logistics forces, it certainly helps.
'If there's a storm and one airfield [in the region] is impacted, the other one won't be as affected. If you have a problem on the aircraft carrier, an issue with a plane engine, with [an aircraft's] tail hook or really bad weather around the ship, Rosy Roads would be a great option. Military planners always look for capacity and increased options.'
Satellite photos also show the installation of portable air traffic support and other mobile security equipment, as well as 20 new tents southeast of the runway near an abandoned aircraft hangar.
The refurbishment of Roosevelt Roads also likely signals the continuation of the air strikes on small boats which the White House claims are being used to traffic drugs into the United States. The US military has killed 64 people in 15 strikes on Caribbean vessels, launched since September.
Anna Kelly, a White House spokeswoman, refused on Tuesday to comment on whether the developments were also in readiness of moves to oust Maduro.
'President Trump has been clear in his message to Maduro: Stop sending drugs and criminals to our country,' she said. 'The president has made clear that he will continue to strike narcoterrorists trafficking illicit narcotics - anything else is speculation and should be treated as such.'
Similar rebuilding efforts on a smaller scale were observed at Rafael Hernandez Airport, the second-busiest civilian airport in Puerto Rico, and on the nearby island of St. Croix, in the US Virgin Islands.
'I'll be very interested to see what facilities they construct around the runways,' said Montgomery. 'What you would look at, as they further develop the site, is how many aprons, how many taxiways. That'll tell you something about the scale of their plans.
'So far this is all reasonable cost investments, that give you capacity. It's taking advantage of an existing airfield and they can use temporary facilities.
'But if you start to see construction that is more like maintenance facilities, that would be a big sign; or air operations facilities - that would be a sign of a longer-term investment in the region.'
'President Trump has been clear in his message to Maduro: Stop sending drugs and criminals to our country,' said Kelly
Tents are seen near the runway at Roosevelt Roads - a naval station abandoned in 2004
The FAA has issued a Notice to Airmen warning of restricted airspace south of Puerto Rico
The US has issued a Notice to Airmen (NOTAM) restricting airspace off the coast of Ceiba from November 1 through March 31, citing 'special security reasons.'
And as the skies are abuzz, the waters around Puerto Rico have also become a hive of activity.
The Trump administration since August has deployed at least 13 warships, five support vessels and a nuclear submarine to the region, including the Gerald Ford aircraft carrier, the largest vessel of its kind.
It is the biggest military build-up in the Caribbean since 1994, when the US sent two aircraft carriers and more than 20,000 troops to Haiti in an UN-backed mission to counter a military coup.
The Gerald Ford is en route and will arrive mid-month - a moment analysts say may be key. Eight warships today remain in the region, along with supporting vessels.
In September, the Marines confirmed their elite special forces were carrying out amphibious landing drills, backed by AH-1Y Cobra and UH-1Y Huey helicopters which took off from the USS Iwo Jima.
Islanders have certainly noticed the flurry of action and are fiercely debating whether it is to be celebrated or condemned. The island of Vieques, off the coast of Ceiba, was a naval testing site from 1941 until 2003, when protesters including Ricky Martin finally forced the military from their shores after decades of bitter complaints.
Inside Venezuela, regime loyalists will be watching the build-up with alarm. Many suspect that the highly-public deployments are designed to make Maduro jump, before he is pushed. Negotiations have been attempted before, with Qatar and Turkey seen as possible places of exile.
A $50 million bounty has been placed on his head - a record offering; double the amount even pledged for the capture or killing of Osama bin Laden. It is certainly making those around the bus driver-turned-dictator extremely jittery.
Roosevelt Roads has gone from being an all-but abandoned site to a hive of activity
A satellite image shows recent improvements to taxiways at Roosevelt Roads base
The Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded Machado the prize last month 'for her tireless work promoting democratic rights for the people of Venezuela and for her struggle to achieve a just and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy,' said chairman Jorgen Watne Frydnes
Maduro has written to Russia, Iran and China appealing for military support. But, while the leaders of those countries may appreciate an opportunity to 'kick sand at the United States,' they are unlikely to deploy significant force to prop up Maduro, said Eric Farnsworth, a Latin America expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
'I don't think that somebody's going to wake up someday, and say, so, we're going to get rid of Maduro,' he said. 'The regime has spent 25 years proofing itself from coups. They've had advisors from Cuba and Russia and elsewhere helping them sort out who the loyal folks are.
'They've used corruption to buy in people in the military and security forces, to buy their loyalty. They've harassed and killed others. They've been very aware of this for years.'
Efforts to replace Maduro, by protest, the ballot box or force, are not new. This time around, however, the US has a viable alternative leader in recent Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Corina Machado, who led the 2024 electoral campaign against the regime.
Her coalition - headed by veteran opposition figure Edmundo Gonzalez, because Machado herself was barred from standing - won in a landslide, with 67 percent to Maduro's 30 percent, according to domestic monitors. Maduro then announced himself the winner.
Trump is said to be cautious about going into Venezuela, not wanting to preside over a military debacle.
But Marco Rubio, his secretary of state, is reportedly hawkish on the issue, and keen to seize the moment.
Farnsworth said he expected action. 'I think it would be surprising if six months from now we had the same status quo,' he said.
'With that level of equipment in the region, keeping a standoff like that going would be surprising to me. At some point I would suggest that the circumstances will need to change, one way or the other.
'The Venezuelan regime is definitely understanding that this time is different.'
