U.S. President Donald Trump announced on Tuesday that the American military carried out an attack in Caribbean waters against a vessel coming from Venezuela that was allegedly transporting a drug shipment. Eleven “terrorists” on board were killed in the strike.
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“We have just, in the last few minutes, fired on a ship carrying drugs,” the Republican president declared from the Oval Office, stressing that “large amounts” of narcotics arrive in the United States from Venezuela.
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Why did the US Armed Forces attack a vessel?
Trump later specified that “the attack resulted in the death of eleven terrorists in action” and that “no member of the U.S. Armed Forces was injured.” On his Truth Social account, where he posted a video of the bombing, he warned: “Let this serve as a warning to anyone considering bringing drugs into the United States.”
According to his explanation, the military “this morning carried out a kinetic strike against narco-terrorists from the Tren de Aragua in the U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) area of responsibility...They were in international waters transporting illegal narcotics bound for the United States,” he said.
The president reminded that Washington considers the Tren de Aragua a foreign terrorist organization. “It operates under the control of (Venezuelan President) Nicolás Maduro and is responsible for mass killings, drug trafficking, sex trafficking, and acts of violence and terrorism in the United States and across the Western Hemisphere,” he stated.
The attack was also confirmed on social media by U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who said the vessel was “being operated by a narco-terrorist organization” sanctioned by Washington.
For his part, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro denounced on Monday before the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) the presence in Caribbean waters of up to eight U.S. warships and a nuclear submarine near Venezuela.