The president of the United States, Donald Trump, announced this Tuesday a new attack by his forces against a boat in the Caribbean that, according to the Republican, had drugs on board. At least six people have died in the coup.
In a message on his social network, Truth, the American president has also included a video of the attack. This is at least the fifth attack against alleged drug boats in the Caribbean since September 2, which has left a total of at least 27 dead.
The attacks on the boats are part of a series of attempts by Trump to use the US armed forces in ways that are as novel as they are controversial: from the fight against drug trafficking in the Caribbean to controlling the streets in cities with a Democratic majority.
“Under my orders, the Secretary of War [de Defensa, Pete Hegseth]has ordered a lethal attack against a vessel affiliated with a Designated Terrorist Organization that was carrying out drug trafficking within the waters of Venezuela,” Trump wrote. The Venezuelan criminal gang Tren de Aragua was included on the State Department’s list of foreign terrorist organizations last February.
As has happened on previous occasions when Trump or his Secretary of Defense have announced attacks on drug boats, the details provided are very limited. Neither then nor now have they provided information about the nationalities or identities of those killed in the attack, what criminal organization they were supposedly affiliated with or what type of drug exactly was on board that boat.
“Intelligence services confirmed that the vessel was trafficking narcotics and was associated with illicit narcoterrorist networks, and was transiting along a route known to be used by terrorist organizations,” added the Republican president. “The coup was launched in international waters, and six male narcoterrorists on board were killed in the attack. No American soldiers were injured,” he concluded.
The White House insists that these strikes are justified and perfectly legitimate from a moral and legal point of view, although its critics denounce that they are illicit and wonder why not simply intercept the boats and interrogate their occupants. “The president has directed these actions, these strikes against the Venezuelan drug cartels and those ships, in accordance with the responsibility he has to protect the interests of the United States abroad, and to further the American interests of national security and foreign policy. This is consistent with his constitutional authority as commander in chief (of the US Armed Forces) and head of the Executive in charge of international relations,” said Donald’s spokeswoman. Trump, Karoline Leavitt, earlier this month, after Hegseth announced the fourth attack.
The video of the new coup, about thirty seconds long as Trump has shared on his networks, shows what appears to be a boat stopped on the high seas, at the moment in which it is hit by a projectile and explodes.
The Pentagon has informed Congress, in a memorandum, that Trump has decided that the United States is involved in an armed conflict with drug cartels, something that raises objections from experts. Trump has also hinted that a “second phase” of this fight will involve not only the destruction of ships in international waters, but also actions on land, without providing further details. The Venezuelan president, Nicolás Maduro, has expressed his conviction that the military campaign against drugs has the true intention of achieving his overthrow. Washington, which links him to drug trafficking networks in his country and describes him as one of the leaders of the cartels, has doubled the reward it offers for his capture to fifty million dollars.
The Trump Administration maintains a nuclear submarine and eight warships in Caribbean waters, with more than 2,000 military personnel on board.
