Senior US national security officials said Wednesday that military operations against cartels would continue, seting the stage for a sustained military campaign in Latin America, even as fundamental issues of a deadly strike against a Venezuela vessel remained unanswered.
The US military killed 11 people on Tuesday in a strike on a Venezuela vessel allegedly with illegal drugs in the first known operation since President Donald Trump’s recent deployment of warships to the southern Caribbean.
There is little known about the strike, including what legal justification was used or what drugs were on board, but US defense secretary Pete Hegeth said the operations would continue.
“We have assets in the air, assets in the water, assets on ships because this is a deadly serious mission for us, and it doesn’t stop with this particular strike,” Hegeth said at Fox & Friends.
“Anyone else acting in the waters we know is a designated Narco Terrorist will face the same fate,” Hegeth said.
He refused to give details of how the operation was performed and said they were classified. It is unknown whether the vessel was destroyed using a drone, torpedo or otherwise.
State Secretary Marco Rubio, who spoke in Mexico City, said similar strikes will happen again.
“Maybe it’s happening right now, I don’t know, but the point is the president of the United States will wage war against Narco -Terroris organizations,” Rubio said.
Trump said Tuesday without providing evidence that the US military had identified the crew of the ship as members of the Venezuelan gang TREN de Aragua, which Washington appointed a terrorist group in February.
On Wednesday, he told journalists in the oval office that “huge amounts of drugs” were found on the boat.
“We have ties of those who speak,” Trump said. “It was huge amounts of drugs that came into our country to kill a lot of people. And everyone fully understands it. In fact, you see what you see the bags of drugs all over the boat,” Trump said.
The Pentagon has not released details of the crew or why it chose to kill them on board.
Presidents for both major US parties have previously claimed the authority to use the military to limited strikes when there is a threat to the United States that Trump did in June when he ordered an attack on Iran.
Rubio said “a boat full of cocaine or fentanyl” was an immediate threat to the United States, adding that Trump had the right to “eliminate (it) under urgent circumstances.”
Mary Ellen O’Connell, an expert on international law and use at the University of Notre Dame, said Tuesday’s operation “violated basic principles of international law.”
“The alleged fact that the attack was on the high sea is irrelevant. What is relevant is that the United States was not entitled to intentionally kill these suspects,” she said.
Maduro “must be concerned”
The decision to blow up a suspected drug vessel passing through the Caribbean, rather than grabbing the vessel and understanding its crew, is very unusual and evokes memories of the American fight against militant groups like Al Qaeda.
The United States have deployed warships in southern Caribbean in recent weeks to follow a promise from Trump to crack down on drug cartels.
Seven American warships and a nuclear -driven fast attack submarine are either in the region or are expected to be there soon that carry more than 4,500 sailors and marines. US marines and sailors of the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit have performed amphibious training and aircraft operations in southern Puerto Rico.
On the question of Venezuela’s close relationship with China, Hegeth was aimed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.
“The only person to be concerned is Nicolas Maduro, who is … effectively a kingpin of a drug drug -state,” Hegeth said.
Last month, Trump administration doubled the rewards of information led to the arrest of Maduro to $ 50 million, accusing him of links to drug trafficking and criminal groups.
Venezuelan officials have said that the Caribbean structure is intended to justify an intervention against those in which Maduro accuses Trump of seeking “regime change.”
In an interview with Fox Notalias on Wednesday, Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado supported the US strike and said the operation was “aimed at saving lives” in Venezuela and the United States.
“We have to be grateful that the president of the United States, Donald Trump and his administration recognize and act towards Maduro as he is: the leader of a Narco-terrorist regime that has been responsible for destroying our country, destabilizing the region and becoming a real threat to US safety,” Machado said. She was prevented from running in the presidential election in 2024, but is the country’s most popular opposition figure.
Authorities in the South American country, which says Tren de Aragua is no longer active there after he was conducted during a prison attack in 2023, suggested on Tuesday that footage shared by Trump by a fast boat at sea, exploding and then burning was created with artificial intelligence.
Reuters carried out initial checks on the video, including a review of its visual elements using a manipulation detection tool that did not show proof of manipulation. However, thorough verification is an ongoing process and Reuters will continue to undergo the recordings as more information becomes available.
The strike pulled skepticism from some within the Venezuelan opposition.
“How did they know that there were 11 people? Did they count them? How did they know they were Venezuelan? Was their ID cards floating on the sea afterwards?” Former opposition presidential candidate Henrique Capriles said to Reuters.
