WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump says the U.S. struck another small boat that he accused of carrying drugs in the waters off Venezuela.
The Republican president said Tuesday in a post on social media that six people aboard the vessel were killed in the strike and no U.S. forces were harmed. It’s the fifth deadly strike in the Caribbean as the Trump administration has asserted that it is treating alleged drug traffickers as unlawful combatants who must be met with military force.
Frustration with the administration has been growing on Capitol Hill among members of both major political parties. Some Republicans are seeking more information from the White House on the legal justification and details of the strikes. Democrats contend the strikes violate U.S. and international law.
Trump said Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered the strike Tuesday morning and released a video of the strike, as he has in the past.
Trump said that the strike was conducted in international waters and that “Intelligence” confirmed that the vessel was trafficking narcotics, was associated with “narcoterrorist networks” and was on a known drug trafficking route.
The Senate last week voted on a war powers resolution that would have barred the Trump administration from conducting the strikes unless Congress specifically authorized them, but it failed to pass.
In a memo to Congress that was obtained by The Associated Press, the Trump administration said it had “determined that the United States is in a non-international armed conflict with these designated terrorist organizations” and that Trump directed the Pentagon to “conduct operations against them pursuant to the law of armed conflict.”
The Trump administration has yet to provide underlying evidence to lawmakers proving that the boats targeted by the U.S. military in a series of fatal strikes were in fact carrying narcotics, according to two U.S. officials familiar with the matter who were not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity.
The strikes followed a buildup of U.S. maritime forces in the Caribbean unlike any seen in recent times.
Last week, Venezuelan Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino told military leaders that the U.S. government knows the drug-trafficking accusations used to support the recent actions in the Caribbean are false, with its true intent being to “force a regime change” in the South American country.
He added that the Venezuelan government does not see the deployment of the U.S. warships as a mere “propaganda-like action” and warned of a possible escalation.
“I want to warn the population: We have to prepare ourselves because the irrationality with which the U.S. empire operates is not normal,” Padrino said during the televised gathering. “It’s anti-political, anti-human, warmongering, rude, and vulgar.”
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