Com­man­der of Unit­ed States South­ern Com­mand (SOUTH­COM), Ad­mi­ral Alvin Holsey, is due in Trinidad and To­ba­go as part of a two-day vis­it to con­duct en­gage­ments with gov­ern­ment and de­fense of­fi­cials and take part in the clos­ing cer­e­mo­ny of the Tradewinds 2025 se­cu­ri­ty train­ing ex­er­cise.

A state­ment from the US Em­bassy in Port of Spain said this will be Ad­mi­ral Holsey’s sec­ond vis­it to Trinidad and To­ba­go as SOUTH­COM Com­man­der.

“Last De­cem­ber, he at­tend­ed the Caribbean Na­tions Se­cu­ri­ty Con­fer­ence (CANSEC),” the Em­bassy said. “His re­turn re­in­forces the strong, en­dur­ing part­ner­ship be­tween the Unit­ed States and Trinidad and To­ba­go.”

The Ad­mi­ral will meet with gov­ern­ment of­fi­cials and Chief of De­fense Staff, Air Vice Mar­shal Dar­ryl Daniel.

“These en­gage­ments high­light the long­stand­ing mil­i­tary col­lab­o­ra­tion be­tween our na­tions and will serve as op­por­tu­ni­ties to dis­cuss shared chal­lenges that af­fect the South­ern Caribbean, in­clud­ing transna­tion­al or­ga­nized crime and il­le­gal im­mi­gra­tion,” the Em­bassy said.

It not­ed that Ad­mi­ral Holsey will at­tend the clos­ing cer­e­mo­ny for the 2025 Tradewinds ex­er­cise on May 8.

Over the past two weeks, over 1,300 mil­i­tary and se­cu­ri­ty per­son­nel from 24 coun­tries have been tak­ing part in this an­nu­al ex­er­cise, which fa­cil­i­tates train­ing for par­tic­i­pants from across the re­gion to counter transna­tion­al or­ga­nized crime and con­duct hu­man­i­tar­i­an and nat­ur­al dis­as­ter re­sponse.

The Caribbean-fo­cused ex­er­cise dates back to the mid-1980s. Trinidad and To­ba­go is host­ing the ex­er­cise for the sixth time. —PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad (CMC)