Activists warn that Trump’s attacks on Caribbean boats threaten regional war Donald Trump news

Washington, DC Dozens of US-based human rights, religious and political groups have criticized President Donald Trump’s expansion of military operations in the Caribbean, warning that his administration’s new campaign could lead to “all-out, borderless war with one or more countries in the region.”

In a written letter to Congress on Wednesday, the signatories condemned a series of recent US strikes on boats in the Caribbean, including at least three coming from Venezuela, that have killed more than 20 people since September. These strikes are the first deadly US military operations in the Caribbean in decades, and are part of what the Trump administration calls the war against “narco-terrorism.”

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“The Trump administration has not provided anything Valid legal justification “These strikes or any evidence substantiating their claims that the victims represented an imminent threat to the security of the United States,” the letter said.

The letter, signed by nearly 60 organizations — including Oxfam America, Human Rights First, Maryknoll Office of Global Concerns, and the American Friends Service Committee — called on members of Congress to prevent what it called the unauthorized and unlawful use of force.

“We fear that, if members of Congress do not take decisive action, there will be more strikes, more extrajudicial killings, and perhaps a full-fledged, borderless war with one or more countries in the region, with potentially devastating humanitarian and geopolitical consequences,” the letter said.

The appeal was issued ahead of the War Powers Resolution introduced by Senators Tim Kaine and Adam Schiff and is expected to reach the Senate floor on Wednesday. Schiff said he and Kaine would force a vote to prevent the government from carrying out lethal strikes against ships in the Caribbean.

“If a president can unilaterally put people or groups on a list and kill them, there is no real limit to his use of force,” Schiff said.

The measure seeks to halt unauthorized US military activity in the Caribbean and reassert Congress’s authority to use force.

Escalation and legal concerns

The New York Times reported in July that Trump had signed a secret directive allowing the possibility of “direct military operations at sea and on foreign soil against gangs.”

Within weeks, US Navy warships, aircraft and more than 4,000 soldiers were deployed to the southern Caribbean. Two weeks later, the first of the four strikes occurred.

To justify the escalation, the administration designated certain regional groups, such as Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua cartel, as “foreign terrorist organizations” and “specially designated global terrorists.” However, legal experts have pointed out that these designations do not permit the use of military force abroad.

Administration officials defended the escalation as a counter-narcotics mission, insisting that the ships targeted were linked to drug trafficking and “terrorist organizations.”

But according to the Washington Office for Latin America and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, about 90 percent of the cocaine heading to the United States passes through the eastern Pacific and western Caribbean Sea, rather than near the coast of Venezuela. Likewise, the DEA said that fentanyl entering the United States is produced in Mexico using precursor chemicals from China, not Venezuela.

At Norfolk Naval Base in Virginia this week, Trump told reporters that if human traffickers “don’t come by sea anymore,” U.S. forces may “take the fight to the ground.”

Fears of regime change

As the administration’s rhetoric has increasingly blurred the line between targeting drug traffickers and targeting the Venezuelan state itself, civil society groups argue that the strikes are part of a broader strategy aimed at regime change in Venezuela. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who has long called for regime change there, pointed this out Government of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro It described it as a cartel “masquerading as a government” and described him as a fugitive from American justice, and offered a reward of up to $50 million for his arrest.

However, internal documents obtained by the Foundation for Freedom of the Press confirmed that US intelligence agencies admitted that the Maduro government “does not run Tren de Aragua (Venezuela) operations in the United States.”

Alex Main, director of international policy at the Center for Economic and Policy Research, warned that Trump’s campaign “may soon be directed at Venezuela in an attempt to incite violent regime change” and that other countries, such as Mexico or Panama, could also face US intervention with “potentially serious consequences” for the region.

Democrats on the House Foreign Affairs Committee also stated that “Trump and Rubio are pushing for regime change in Venezuela,” adding: “The American people do not want another war — and Congress cannot allow any president to start a war illegally or unilaterally. That’s not how the Constitution works.”

Elizabeth Tregaskis Gordon, senior policy advisor for LAC at Oxfam America, told Al Jazeera that many Venezuelans were already “in crisis,” and warned that the US military surge would disrupt humanitarian work in the country.

“Many cannot obtain basic necessities to survive, while facing rising prices of consumer goods and increasing food insecurity,” she added. “Worsening the humanitarian crisis will only lead to more chaos and disruption; current US military action is unconstitutional, violates the UN Charter, and must stop immediately.”

Religious communities take a stand

“War is always a defeat,” Susan Gunn, director of Maryknoll’s Office of Global Concerns, told Al Jazeera. “When this killing targets civilians without due process, it violates the sanctity of human life and undermines fundamental human rights and the rule of law.”

The letter her group and others wrote to Congress also warns that further escalation could exacerbate the largest modern displacement crisis in Latin America, exacerbating the suffering of millions of people who have already fled Venezuela.

The signatories urged Congress to stop the military buildup, investigate civilian deaths, and pursue diplomacy.

Bridget Moix, general secretary of the Friends Committee for National Legislation, added: “War is neither the solution at home nor abroad.”

“In these unprecedented times, it is critical that the U.S. Congress restore its constitutional powers,” the letter concluded.