United States President, Donald Trump, stated on Monday that the US military has sunk, "in international waters," a new boat with "three Venezuelan narco-terrorists on board" allegedly heading towards North America. This is the second drone attack in a few weeks, while the US Navy continues to deploy ships and planes in the area with Washington's war rhetoric escalating. The images show a small boat, stopped at that moment, with some cargo, one or two people in sight but no movement on deck. And an explosion, most likely caused by the drone capturing the images from the sky.
In a social media post, Trump indicated that "this morning, under my orders, the US Military carried out a SECOND Kinetic Attack against drug cartels and narco-terrorists, positively identified as extremely violent, in the area of responsibility of the Southern Command. The attack occurred while these confirmed Venezuelan narco-terrorists were in international waters transporting illegal narcotics (A DEADLY WEAPON THAT POISONS AMERICANS!) destined for the US." Exactly the same modus operandi, the same sequence, and the same reasons as those given a few weeks ago when a drone sank a boat in the Caribbean allegedly killing 11 people, labeled as "terrorists" by the president.
The attack comes hours after the president did not rule out operations or bombings in Venezuelan mainland territory. When asked before boarding the presidential helicopter this Sunday, Trump said he also did not rule out overthrowing Nicolas Maduro. "We'll see what happens; I don't know if it's an option, but it's not an impossible option either. We'll see... Uh, they had elections that went wrong. They were almost as corrupt as ours in 2020. You know what I mean. I wouldn't say theirs were much more corrupt, but they certainly were, but ours were too," he said with his usual narrative about the 2020 elections.
In his message today, the Republican leader reiterated what he said last night. "These extremely violent drug cartels REPRESENT A THREAT to National Security, Foreign Policy, and vital US interests. The attack resulted in the death of three male terrorists in combat. No member of the US Armed Forces was injured. ATTENTION! IF YOU TRANSPORT DRUGS THAT CAN KILL AMERICANS, WE ARE HUNTING YOU! The illicit activities of these cartels have had DEVASTATING CONSEQUENCES ON US COMMUNITIES FOR DECADES, killing millions of American citizens. NOT ANYMORE," he warned.
The sinking of the boat comes as the legal services of the State Department or the Department of War, formerly Defense, have not provided an argument on what legal basis Washington has to bomb boats in international waters. Or what evidence they had that the 11 deceased men were "terrorists." Several Senators have demanded the Executive branch to provide evidence, make public the intercepted communications that the State Department claims to have, and a response, while civil associations speak of "extrajudicial executions."
"ATTENTION: IF YOU TRANSPORT DRUGS THAT CAN KILL AMERICANS, WE ARE PURSUING YOU! The illicit activities of these cartels have had devastating consequences for American communities for decades, killing millions of American citizens. Not anymore!" the White House said in a message imitating the president's style, and sharing the destruction images.
The White House argues that by defining different drug trafficking organizations as terrorists, it is sufficient to proceed against them using any means, including the military. And that it is "self-defense" since they posed "an imminent threat," hence the language in the president's post. However, this clashes with decades of very different procedures and numerous internal legal reports against it.
As of today, it is not known exactly where any of the boats have been bombed or the identities of the deceased. Nor what cargo they had and their alleged destination, which Trump claims was US territory. Despite the great distance, it is unusual for cartels to use that route to reach the US directly. And especially strange that there were 11 people on board a boat trying to reach the US, as drug traffickers never operate like that. They prefer fewer people and more cargo, especially if the boats are very small. Like the one sunk today, if it only had three people on board.