Trump administration says more operations against cartels coming

Trump administration says more operations against cartels coming

#trump #venezuela #cartel #politcs #america

Senior U.S. national security officials said on Wednesday that military operations against cartels would continue, setting the stage for a sustained military campaign in Latin America even as basic questions about a deadly strike against a vessel from Venezuela remained unanswered. Gabe Singer reports.

The U.S. military killed 11 people on Tuesday in a strike on a vessel from Venezuela allegedly carrying illegal narcotics.

U.S. President Donald Trump shared a video that appeared to show footage from overhead drones of a speedboat at sea exploding and then on fire.

Speaking in Mexico City on Wednesday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio defended the operation.

“And it’ll happen again. Maybe it’s happening right now, I don’t know. But the point is, the way the president, United States is going to wage war on narco-terrorist organizations, this one was operating in international waters headed towards the United States to flood our country with poison.”

Meanwhile, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said on FOX & Friends that, quote, “anyone else trafficking in those waters who we know is a designated narco terrorist will face the same fate.”

Trump said on Tuesday, without providing evidence, that the U.S. military had identified the crew of the vessel as members of Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, which Washington designated a terrorist group earlier this year.

On Wednesday, he told reporters in the Oval Office that drugs were found on the boat.

“On the boat they had massive amounts of drugs. We have tapes of them speaking. There was massive amounts of drugs coming into our country to kill a lot of people.”

The Pentagon has not released specifics about the crew nor why it chose to kill those on board.

The U.S. has deployed warships in the southern Caribbean in recent weeks with the aim of following through on a pledge by Trump to crack down on drug cartels.

Venezuelan officials have said the Caribbean buildup is meant to justify an intervention against them, with President Nicolas Maduro accusing Trump of seeking “regime change.”

They say Tren de Aragua is no longer active there after being dismantled during a prison raid in 2023, and suggested that the video shared by Trump was created with artificial intelligence.

Initial checks on the video by Reuters did not show evidence of manipulation.

Presidents of both major U.S. parties have in the past asserted the authority to use the military for limited strikes when there is a threat to the United States.

However, the decision to blow up a suspected drug vessel passing through the Caribbean, instead of seizing the vessel and apprehending its crew, is highly unusual.

“The message that they’re sending here is that there’s been a paradigm shift in how the United States will do security in the Western Hemisphere.”

Ryan Berg is director of the Americas program and head of the Future of Venezuela Initiative at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

“What I think is happening now is the United States is taking a more unilateral approach.”

“I think the message from the administration there is, these are foreign terrorist organizations, the rules of engagement have changed.”

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