A United States federal judge sentenced Rubén Oseguera, known as El Menchito, to life in prison in March 2025. He is the son of fugitive Jalisco New Generation cartel boss Nemesio Oseguera. THE ASSOCIATED PRESS THE ASSOCIATED PRESS The son of a Mexican drug cartel boss was sentenced to life in prison March 7 for helping his father run one of the country’s largest and most violent narcotics trafficking organizations. Rubén Oseguera, known as El Menchito, is the son of fugitive Jalisco New Generation cartel boss Nemesio Oseguera. The son served as the CJNG cartel’s second-in-command for seven years before…
The Watch
Canada is likely to play a role in the construction and deployment of the U.S. Golden Dome missile defense system, three academics argued in a February 2025 Wilson Center analysis. U.S. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE TROY BOUFFARD, WHITNEY LACKENBAUER AND ANDREA CHARRON U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order (EO) on January 27, 2025, directing the U.S. Department of Defense to build an “Iron Dome for America,” which is shorthand for a next-generation missile defense shield for the United States (and since rebranded as the Golden Dome). “Over the past 40 years, rather than lessening, the threat from next-generation strategic weapons has…
Police from the Bahamas stand on the tarmac after arriving to Haiti to be part of a U.N.-backed multinational force at Toussaint Louverture International Airport in Port-au-Prince, in October 2024. In February 2025, a Royal Bahamas Defence Force corvette, HMBS Nassau, was in the final steps before deployment to support the multinational security mission. THE ASSOCIATED PRESS THE WATCH STAFF A Royal Bahamas Defence Force (RBDF) corvette entered the final stages of readiness for deployment to Haiti in February 2025 as part of a security mission aimed at restoring order to its Caribbean neighbor, which is ensnared in prolonged violence…
United States President Donald J. Trump issued a January 2025 executive order mandating the construction of a Golden Dome missile defense system to combat next-generation weapons. This image shows a missile defense test executed at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico. U.S. ARMY THE WATCH STAFF Creating a Golden Dome of missile defense to protect the United States ranks as a high homeland defense priority for the U.S. government. The threat is real: The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), Russia and North Korea are all developing advanced missiles, including hypersonic missiles and Hypersonic Glide Vehicles (HGV). A multidomain missile…
Soldiers assigned to Bravo Battery, 5th Battalion, 3rd Field Artillery (Long Range Fires Battalion), 1st Multi-Domain Task Force, prepare one of the long-range hypersonic weapon transporter erector launchers to fire during exercise Resolute Hunter 24-2 on Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Washington, on June 25, 2024. CAPT. RYAN DEBOOY/U.S. ARMY THE WATCH STAFF The United States Army will deploy its “Dark Eagle” long-range hypersonic weapon (LRHW) with a combat unit by the end of its budget year in September, a defense official confirmed February 26 in a statement to Defense News magazine. The U.S. is racing to implement the missile system, as China,…
Mexico extradited 29 Mexican cartel members to the U.S. in February 2025 in a “good faith” gesture. REUTERS REUTERS Mexico handed over major figures in the country’s criminal underworld to U.S. authorities in February 2025 as part of a surprise extradition of nearly 30 jailed convicts or others accused of ties to violent drug cartels. Some are aging gang leaders who reigned over international trafficking rings decades ago that profited from cocaine and heroin. Others are much younger leaders engaged in moving large quantities of deadly fentanyl into the United States more recently. Mexican authorities confirmed officials handed over 29…
Mexican Marines stand guard at a pier in Baja California in this undated photo from the Mexican government. In February 2025, 10 U.S. Army Green Berets traveled to Campeche, Mexico, to engage in a six-week training exercise with Mexican Marines. GOVERNMENT OF MEXICO THE WATCH STAFF United States Green Beret Soldiers flew to Mexico in February 2025 to train with Mexican Marines in a nearly six-week exercise at a Mexican naval base in Campeche. The training will last until the end of March and was approved unanimously by the Mexican Senate, according to multiple news sites. Ten Soldiers from the…
United States Soldiers scan their sector at a known crossing point of the Rio Grande in Brownsville, Texas, on February 25, 2025. U.S. Northern Command is working with the Department of Homeland Security to augment U.S. Customs and Border Protection along the southern border with additional military forces. SGT. 1ST CLASS ANDREW SVEEN/U.S. ARMY THE WATCH STAFF The Pentagon has ordered about 3,000 additional active-duty troops to the Mexico-United States border, including Soldiers from a motorized brigade equipped with 20-ton armored Stryker combat vehicles and a General Support Aviation Battalion (GSAB), in the latest expansion of the border mission. About 2,400…
Migrants are escorted by officers of the Turks and Caicos Marine Branch and the Fisheries and Marine Resources Management on February 17, 2025. ROYAL TURNKS AND CAICOS ISLANDS POLICE FORCE THE WATCH STAFF In a major operation, law enforcement apprehended 148 migrants in the Turks and Caicos Islands (TCI) after their vessel was intercepted on February 17, 2025. The interdiction involved a coordinated effort by multiple agencies, including the Marine Branch, Fisheries and Marine Resources Management, the TCI Regiment, TCI Border Force, the Department of Disaster Management and Emergencies, the Maritime Operations Centre, and the United States Coast Guard. The…
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) icebreaker, Xuelong 2, in Antarctica in December 2024. The CCP has sought to challenge the U.S. and its allies in the Arctic with dual-use scientific voyages, often accompanied by icebreakers. AFP/GETTY IMAGES DR. CAMERON CARLSON/UNIVERSITY OF ALASKA FAIRBANKS The Arctic has become a key theater of global competition with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) pursuing extensive economic, scientific and military initiatives to expand its influence. For the United States, countering the CCP’s Arctic ambitions is essential to meeting its northern border’s homeland defense needs while maintaining stability in this strategically significant area. In its 2018…