US President Donald Trump on Monday said that a strike on an alleged drug trafficking boat from Venezuela killed three people, as Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro vowed to resist Washington’s “aggression.”
Trump’s administration has faced questions over the legality of deadly military strikes on suspected drug boats since the first such attack earlier this month which killed 11 people.
The fresh attack also comes amid spiraling tensions in the Caribbean as a large US naval buildup sparks speculation that Washington might be seeking regime change in Caracas.
Photo: EPA
Trump posted a video of a boat bobbing in the sea before exploding in a ball of orange flame as he announced the strike on social media, adding that it resulted in “3 male terrorists killed in action.”
The strikes have raised questions about whether they are within international law or effectively amount to extrajudicial killings, but Trump insisted the US was confident that the dead men were traffickers.
“We have proof,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.
“All you have to do is look at the cargo that was, like, it’s spattered all over the ocean. Big bags of cocaine and fentanyl all over the place,” he said.
Tensions between longtime foes the US and Venezuela reached new heights after Trump dispatched eight warships to waters near Venezuela to pressure Maduro.
The US accuses the leftist of heading a cocaine trafficking cartel and has doubled its bounty for his capture to US$50 million. Much of the international community rejected his re-election in July last year, with the opposition claiming widespread fraud.
Maduro hit back on Monday, branding US Secretary of State Marco Rubio the “lord of death and war” over his tough rhetoric on Latin American cartels.
Referring to the US naval buildup and the earlier boat attack, Maduro told reporters that Caracas would “fully” exercise its “legitimate right to defend itself.”
Maduro often accuses the US of attempting regime change in his nation.
Speculation has been swirling that the Trump administration could be preparing targeted strikes against Latin American drug cartels, including in Venezuela.
Trump on Sunday refused to deny it was a possibility.
“We’ll see what happens,” Trump told reporters when asked if strikes on the Venezuelan mainland were possible. “Venezuela is sending us their gang members, their drug dealers and drugs. It’s not acceptable.”
Washington earlier this month dramatically upped the ante by blowing up a speedboat with 11 people on board that it claimed was smuggling drugs from Venezuela.
In an interview with Fox News during a visit to Jerusalem on Monday, Rubio defended the attack on the boat traveling in international waters, amid questions over its legality.
“We have 100 percent fidelity and certainty that that boat was involved in that trafficking of those drugs,” Rubio said.
Maduro said communications with the Trump administration had broken down over the US “aggression,” adding that his nation would “confront it.”
He leveled much of the blame at the hawkish Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants to the US who has been a vehement critic of left-wing authoritarian governments in Latin America.
Although most of the cartels on the terrorism list are Mexican, Washington has focused its attacks on Venezuela.
Maduro said the “bomb threats” had caused a complete collapse in relations between the two nations, which broke off diplomatic ties in 2019.
In the face of the US pressure, he has deployed 25,000 troops to Venezuela’s border with Colombia, a transit point on the Latin American drug trafficking route, and along the Caribbean coast.
Thousands of people have also joined a civilian militia intended as backup for the military.
At the weekend, they thronged training camps where they learned to handle and fire weapons.
“If they [the US] try to attack the homeland, the entire population will defend it,” said Jenny Rojas, a 54-year-old lawyer who was among the recruits.
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