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US military forces have Another alleged drug smuggling boat stuck In CaribbeanDestroyed the ship and killed all six people aboard – just as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced he had dispatched a massive aircraft carrier to the region.
hegseth He announced the boat attack in a social media post, claiming that his department had conducted a “lethal kinetic attack” on the ship, which he claimed was operated by members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua.
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He also said that all six people on board the plane were killed in the attack and described them as “terrorists”, in line with the Trump administration’s designation of them as terrorists. Tren de Aragua as a foreign terrorist organization,
Hegseth said, “If you are a narco-terrorist smuggling drugs into our hemisphere, we will treat you the same way we treat al-Qaeda. Day or night, we will map your networks, track your people, hunt you down, and kill you.”
Hegseth’s announcement brings to more than 40 the death toll from the Trump administration’s weeks-long campaign in multiple strikes against alleged drug smugglers in both the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean.
The latest attack comes just a day after the Pentagon boss disclosed two attacks killed a total of five people – an attack against a boat off the coast of Colombia that killed two, and a second attack on Wednesday that killed three more.
As of Friday, there have been ten US attacks on alleged drug smuggling ships by military forces in what the Trump administration has described as a war against foreign drug cartels.
Further bolstering that effort, Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell later posted on Twitter that Hegseth had exercised his authority to order the U.S.S. Gerald R. ford and its accompanying carrier strike group were moved to the U.S. Southern Command area of responsibility, which includes Caribbean and South American waters.
Parnell wrote that the “enhanced force presence” of the giant aircraft carrier and her escort ships “will enhance the U.S. ability to detect, monitor, and disrupt illicit actors and activities that compromise the security and prosperity of the United States homeland and our security in the Western Hemisphere.”
“These forces will complement and enhance existing capabilities to disrupt and dismantle drug trafficking [transnational criminal organizations]“He said.
Critics have argued the Trump administration’s air campaign against alleged smugglers This is tantamount to illegal extrajudicial killingsWhile members of Congress and civil rights groups are pressing the administration for evidence justifying the attacks and for legal memos shared among White House officials.
So far, the administration has been unwilling to share any intelligence used to select the targeted boats or the legal reasoning behind the attacks. And while the administration continues to describe those killed as “terrorists”, two people who survived a recent attack in the Caribbean were deported back to their home countries rather than detained.
The apparent repatriation of those labeled “terrorists” by the government – rather than facing prosecution in the United States – also raises additional legal questions about the operation, including whether survivors should be treated as prisoners of war or transferred to military or criminal authorities for prosecution.
Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro said the US strike in September targeted a civilian boat in distress – not a drug-smuggling boat. And accused Trump of “murder.”
Trump, on his Truth Social, called Petro “an illegal drug leader” and accused his government of “snapping” American aid.
Most of the cocaine smuggled into the United States comes from the Pacific Ocean, but the Trump administration has focused its attacks largely on Venezuela and the Caribbean coast in an apparent military-led campaign against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.
While the Trump administration has declared the US engaged in an “armed conflict” with the president’s drug cartels donald trump As for “unlawful combatants” – an invocation of wartime authority to justify the use of force – Trump has said he will not ask Congress to greenlight his actions, despite explicit provisions in the U.S. Constitution that reserve the power to declare war to the legislative branch.
At a White House roundtable on anti-drug efforts Thursday, Trump rejected calls for a declaration of war or authorization for the use of military force against the cartels or South American governments he claims are responsible for supporting the cartels.
Trump said, “I don’t think we would necessarily ask for a declaration of war. I think we’re just going to kill people who are bringing drugs into our country, OK? We’re going to kill them.”
Alex Woodward contributed reporting from New York