US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that the United States attacked another small boat accused of carrying drugs in the waters off Venezuela, killing six people.
The Republican president added that those who died in the raid were on board the ship, and that none of the American forces were harmed he said in a social media post.
It is the fifth deadly strike in the Caribbean as the Trump administration asserts it is treating alleged drug traffickers as illegal combatants who must be met with military force.
Trump said US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered the strike on Tuesday morning, and released a video of it, as he has done in the past. Hegseth later shared the video In a post on X.
Trump said that the strike was carried out in international waters, and that unspecified intelligence information confirmed that the ship was trafficking drugs, was linked to “narco-terrorist networks” and was traveling on a known drug smuggling route.
The Pentagon did not immediately respond to an email from The Associated Press requesting more information about the latest boat strike.
Some US lawmakers are feeling increasingly frustrated
Frustration with the Trump administration is growing on Capitol Hill among members of both major political parties. Some Republicans are seeking more information from the White House about the legal justifications and details of the strikes, while Democrats assert that the strikes violate American and international law.
What is President Donald Trump’s endgame with repeated US strikes on boats near Venezuela? Andrew Chang explains the threats the Trump administration says it is responding to and why Venezuela’s relationship with China may also be a factor. Images courtesy of Getty Images, The Canadian Press and Reuters.
The US Senate last week voted on a war powers resolution that would have prevented the Trump administration from launching strikes unless specifically authorized by Congress, but it failed to pass.
In a memo to Congress obtained by The Associated Press, the administration said it had “determined that the United States is in a non-international armed conflict with these designated terrorist organizations,” and that Trump had directed the Pentagon “to conduct operations against them in accordance with the law of armed conflict.”
The Trump administration has not yet provided key evidence to lawmakers proving that the boats targeted by the US military were in fact carrying drugs, according to two US officials familiar with the matter, who were not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
The strikes followed a build-up of US naval forces in the Caribbean, unlike what has happened recently.
Last week, Venezuelan Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino told military commanders that the US government knows the drug trafficking accusations are false, and that its real goal is to “force regime change” in the South American country.
He added that the Venezuelan government does not consider the deployment of US warships merely a “propaganda act” and warned of possible escalation.
“I want to warn the population: We have to prepare ourselves because the irrationality with which the American empire operates is not normal,” Padrino said during the televised rally.
“It is anti-political, anti-humanitarian, warmongering, crude and vulgar.”
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