The United States’ campaign of extrajudicial military attacks against alleged drug trafficking speedboats continues unabated. On Friday, the Pentagon announced a new strike against one of these vessels in international waters in the Caribbean, in which six people were killed. It is the first such strike in the Caribbean since Washington confirmed two attacks in the Pacific on Wednesday, which also brought the U.S. military campaign against the cartels in the Americas to those waters.
Later in the day, Washington also stated it would dispatch the USS Gerald Ford, the navy’s most advanced aircraft carrier, and its support group to join the naval deployment of warships and a submarine already in the region.
The announcement also coincides with an escalation in President Donald Trump’s rhetoric against drug trafficking and Latin American governments, which he accuses of complacency towards the cartels — or even of being linked to them. After months of repeatedly attacking Venezuela and its president, Nicolás Maduro, the Republican has now set his sights on Colombia and President Gustavo Petro, whom he has called a “thug.” Meanwhile, he insists that the next phase of his campaign will involve ground operations that are already imminent, although he has not specified how or where these would take place.
This new attack was announced, as is now customary, in a message posted on social media. U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth pointed out that the new strike is the first to be carried out at night since the current campaign began on September 2. None of the occupants of the alleged drug boat survived.
According to the Pentagon chief, the vessel was part of an operation staged by Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan criminal gang that the United States added to its list of foreign terrorist organizations in February.
“The vessel was known by our intelligence to be involved in illicit narcotics smuggling, was transiting along a known narco-trafficking route, and carrying narcotics,” Hegseth wrote. “No U.S. forces were harmed in this strike.”
“If you are a narco-terrorist smuggling drugs in our hemisphere, we will treat you like we treat Al-Qaeda. Day or night, we will map your networks, track your people, hunt you down, and kill you,” added the Secretary of Defense — or War, as he and his administration prefer to call it.
Trump has boasted on several occasions about the “success” of the campaign, in which 10 alleged drug-running boats have been sunk — eight in the Caribbean and two in the Pacific — and at least 43 civilians have been killed.
Only two people are known to have survived these U.S. missile strikes: an Ecuadorian and a Colombian, both of whom were among the occupants of a submersible that sank a week ago in international Caribbean waters. Both were repatriated to their respective countries, and the Ecuadorian has already been released after Quito’s prosecutor’s office found no evidence of any crime.
The Trump administration considers that the United States is in a “non-international armed conflict” with drug cartels, which it considers to be terrorist organizations. Its argument is that the narcotics they bring into the country kill tens of thousands of people every year. Last week, the U.S. president confirmed that he has authorized the CIA to carry out covert operations inside Venezuela.
Senators from both parties oppose Trump’s decision to assume powers of war against these organizations rather than against a country, invoking a 1970s law that gives him the authority to maintain such operations for 60 days without congressional approval. Those 60 days end in early November, but could still be extended for another 30 days.
Senators critical of Trump’s methods attempted to pass a bill prohibiting the president from acting without legislative approval, but the measure failed to secure the necessary support. Lawmakers have announced that they will put it to a vote again.
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