On Thursday, US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced another deadly US strike on a boat he said was smuggling drugs in the Caribbean Sea. Thursday’s attack killed three people on board the ship, bringing the death toll from the Trump administration’s campaign in South American waters to at least 69 people in at least 17 raids, Hegseth said.
Hegseth posted a 20-second video of the strike on social media and wrote: “As we have said before, ship strikes on narco-terrorists will continue until…the poisoning of the American people stops.” He claimed that the ship “was operated by a designated terrorist organization.”
President Donald Trump justified the strikes by saying the United States is in an “armed conflict” with drug cartels and claiming the boats are operated by foreign terrorist organizations. The administration did not provide evidence or further details.
Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio briefed a small group of congressional leaders on Wednesday on the growing military campaign, offering one of the first high-level glimpses into the legal rationale and strategy behind the strikes. Republicans appeared either silent or expressing confidence in the campaign. Democrats said Congress needs more information about how the strikes were carried out and the legal justification for actions that critics say violate international and US law by killing alleged drug traffickers on the high seas.
On Thursday, Senate Republicans voted to reject legislation that would have restricted Trump’s ability to launch an attack on Venezuela, as Democrats pressed Congress to take a stronger role in Trump’s high-stakes campaign against President Nicolas Maduro.
(tags for translation)Trump Administration
