U.S. Fourth Fleet Unnerves Latin Dictators

(Washington, D.C.) On April 24th, Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) Adm. Gary Roughhead announced the re-establishment of the U.S. Fourth Fleet responsible for U.S. Navy ships, aircraft and submarines operating in the Caribbean, and Central and South America.

Former Navy SEAL, Rear Adm. Joseph D. Kernan, the current Commander of Naval Special Warfare, will be assigned as Commander, U.S. Fourth Fleet.

Kernan is the first Navy SEAL to command a numbered fleet.

U.S. Fourth Fleet will be dual-hatted with the existing commander, U.S. Naval Forces Southern Command (NAVSO), currently located in Mayport, Fla.

U.S. Fourth Fleet has been re-established to address the increased role of maritime forces in the U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) area of operations, and to demonstrate U.S. commitment to regional partners.

Effective July 1st, the Fourth Fleet will have operational responsibility for U.S. Navy assets assigned from east and west coast fleets to operate in the SOUTHCOM area.

Meanwhile, Cuba's Fidel Castro and Bolivia's Evo Morales have expressed concern.

The ailing Castro raised the question in a column published Monday in the Communist Party newspaper Granma, suggesting it signaled a return to gunboat diplomacy.

"The aircraft carriers and nuclear bombs that threaten our countries are used to sow terror and death, but not to combat terrorism and illegal activities," he wrote on Monday.

Evo Morales, president of landlocked Bolivia, called it "the Fourth Fleet of intervention" in an interview with Cuban television.

Analysts, however, indicate that the re-establishment of the Fourth Fleet is administrative and symbolic. I believe it to be strategic. In any event, belligerent leaders in Latin and South America have taken note.

The U.S. Fourth Fleet was originally established in 1943 during WWII. It was absorbed by the Second Fleet in 1950.

Also: The Jawa Report