Trump’s Persistent Strikes on Venezuelan Boats
Written By: Hrishita Mareddy
President Donald Trump is defending a fast-expanding campaign of U.S. air and naval strikes on small boats in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific, operations that have killed at least 61 people in 14 strikes since early September.
The first acknowledged strike, announced September 2nd, blew up a speedboat that U.S. officials said had departed Venezuela. The attack killed 11 people, who Trump claimed were members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua. The strikes followed a late-August deployment of about eight U.S. warships and thousands of Marines to the waters off the Venezuelan coast, billed as an “enhanced counternarcotics operation.”
Trump’s strategy rests on a dramatic legal move. On his first day in office, he signed an order creating a process to designate international cartels as foreign terrorist organizations (FTOs), and his administration soon labeled eight Latin American groups (including Tren de Aragua) as FTOs. Officials told Congress the U.S. is in an “armed conflict” with drug cartels and may treat suspected traffickers as “unlawful combatants” under Trump’s Article II commander-in-chief powers.
Human-rights experts—and the U.N. high commissioner for human rights—say that claim doesn’t hold under international law, calling the boat attacks “unacceptable” extrajudicial killings that must be stopped. On Capitol Hill, Sen. Rand Paul has branded the strikes as “extrajudicial killings,” while Democrat Ruben Gallego has called them “sanctioned murder.” Supporters, like Sen. Lindsey Graham, argue that Trump is lawfully protecting Americans from “narco-terrorists.”
Regionally, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, already under U.S. narco-terrorism indictment and a $50 million bounty, has condemned the naval buildup as a grave threat. Meanwhile, Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro says at least one bombed boat may have been Colombian and not a cartel vessel—underscoring fears that Washington’s bid to project power, deter smugglers, and pressure Caracas could spiral into a larger confrontation.