US says it struck a second Venezuelan drug boat in international waters; three killed. Image: BBC News.
(The Post News)– United States President Donald Trump announced on Monday that the US military had destroyed an alleged Venezuelan drug-smuggling vessel in international waters, saying three people were killed in what he described as a strike against “violent drug trafficking cartels.”
Trump wrote in a post on social media that included a short video showing a vessel enveloped in flames. He said that acting on his orders, a second kinetic strike was carried out by the US military. According to Trump, these extraordinarily violent drug trafficking organizations present a threat to US national security.
Speaking later in the Oval Office, Trump said they had recorded evidence showing the boat carried narcotics. “All you have to do is look at the cargo; it was spattered all over the ocean—big bags of cocaine and fentanyl all over the place. We recorded them. It was very careful, because we know you people would be after us. We’re very careful,” he said.
He added that maritime trafficking had declined under recent operations but warned narcotics continued to enter over land.
Venezuelan President Condemns Latest US Strike
The strikes follow an earlier attack in the same region this month that killed 11 people and touched off intense debate in Washington and Caracas. Senator Marco Rubio, whom Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro later singled out by name, defended the earlier operation on cable television, saying Washington had “100% fidelity and certainty” the vessel had been involved in trafficking and adding bluntly, “What needs to start happening is some of these boats need to get blown up.”
Maduro condemned the latest strike and warned Venezuela would defend itself against what he called US “aggression.” He slammed Rubio as the “lord of death and war” and said relations with the United States “have moved from a period of battered relations to a completely broken one.” He further vowed that Caracas would “fully” exercise its “legitimate right to defend itself.”
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