The fulminant United States attack against a boat that, according to Washington, transported drugs from Venezuela has caused numerous international doubts and questions, mainly due to the decision to use lethal force that produced the death of 11 people.
The operation, justified by President Donald Trump as necessary to send a forceful message to drug cartels, has generated official protests from Venezuela and harsh criticism of the Colombian president, Gustavo Petro.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Clvisuwxr4
Trump’s military operation and justification
On Tuesday, President Donald Trump confirmed that the US Armed Forces carried out an attack on a boat in the southern Caribbean Sea, in “international waters”, which transported narcotics and was operated, according to the administration, by the Venezuelan criminal organization of Aragua.
“There were huge amounts of drugs entering our country to kill many people, and everyone understands that completely,” Trump said and added that the attack would serve as warning.
The operation ended with the death of 11 supposed drug traffickers, according to official information. The US Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, supported the action and said that “President Trump is willing to go on the offensive of ways that others have not seen. Any other person who trafique in those waters will face the same destination.”
Meanwhile, in Mexico, where he is an official visit, the Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, emphasized that these actions will continue.
“We are going to face drug cartels wherever they are and wherever they are operating against the interests of the United States,” said Rubio.
This attack represents an unprecedented change in the way of fighting drug trafficking in the region, by using military force to destroy suspicious vessels directly instead of limiting themselves to intercepting them or capturing their occupants.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-7r4n4akxm
International legal doubts and criticism
Experts in International Law have questioned the legality of this operation. Mary Ellen O’Connell, professor at the University of Notre Dame, explained that “intentionally killing someone outside the context of an armed conflict is illegal unless it is to save an emergency life. There were no hostilities in the Caribbean.”
For its part, the Venezuelan government denounced the operation before the United Nations Organization (UN).
Alexander Yáñez, permanent representative of Venezuela before the international agency, described the US military presence of violation of the United Nations Charter and accused Washington of using falsehoods to justify the attack, noting that Venezuela is a territory free of illicit crops according to official reports.
“The true purpose of the White House is to cause the change of regime in Venezuela to appropriate its oil wealth,” denounced the diplomat, who requested the immediate withdrawal of the US forces of the region and guarantees on the non -use of nuclear weapons.
For his part, the Colombian president, Gustavo Petro, described the attack as a “murder”, emphasizing that “those who transport drugs are not the great drug traffickers, but the very poor young people of the Caribbean and the Pacific.”
Petro stressed in his social networks that Colombia has carried out operations against drug trafficking without killing civilians and said that the death of the 11 occupants of the boat represents a serious violation of human rights.
A military escalation in the Caribbean
This action is part of an unprecedented military escalation in the Caribbean, where the United States has deployed a flotilla of at least seven warships, including destroyers with missiles, an amphibious squad and thousands of military personnel, a figure that exceeds 6,700 soldiers.
President Trump has directly linked to the Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro with drug cartels and, as in the North American Old West of the nineteenth century, has raised the reward for its capture to 50 million dollars.
According to the Pentagon, Maduro acts as a narcolastado boss, thus justifying military deployment and direct actions in the region.
The UN spokesman, Stéphane Dujarric, expressed concern about the growing tension between the United States and Venezuela and stressed that the differences must be resolved according to international law and the UN letter, although he avoided qualifying the legality of the attack.
