HRW states that with “the use of lethal force,” the US army against alleged drug traffickers “violated international human rights law”; as well as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which ratified the US and that protects the right to life
Human Rights Watch said on Thursday, September 18 that the United States military attacks against two vessels that supposedly transported drugs from Venezuela to the United States “constitute illegal extrajudicial executions.”
The organization indicated that these operations of the Donald Trump administration to combat drug trafficking could facilitate more human rights violations. After the annihilation of two vessels, the US has announced that it has killed 14 people, who allegedly carried drugs.
“The US authorities cannot kill in a summary way to those who accuse of drug trafficking,” Sarah Yager saiddirector of the Washington Office of Human Rights Watch. “The problem of drug trafficking towards the United States does not constitute an armed conflict, and US authorities cannot avoid their human rights obligations pretending otherwise.”
To date, the US says that he has attacked three boats from Venezuela, supposedly loaded with drugs; However, he has only shown as “evidence” videos of the two attacks that 14 deaths would have left. The first sinking was informed on September 2 and the Trump administration said the 11 people on board were members of the Aragua train. The second boat was sunk on September 15, allegedly with three people, and then Trump indicated, without evidence, that the annihilated vessels have been.
With respect to the first boat, Human Rights Watch was visually confirmed that there were at least six people on board at the time of the attack. The exact location of the boat and the time of the attack have not been verified.
The organization could not verify where or when the second attack occurred. In that explosion two people could be observed while the boat was motionless.
HRW states that with “the use of lethal force,” the US army against alleged drug traffickers “violated international human rights law”; as well as the International Pact of Civil and Political Rights, which ratified the US and that protects the right to life. The NGO recalled that the rules of international rights of Human Rights, who participate in security tasks, including military forces, must always act minimizing damage and seeking to preserve life and that it can only be “resorted to the use of lethal force when strictly inevitable to protect life or avoid serious injuries to an imminent threat.”
Human Right Watch condemned that US authorities have not made “any effort to minimize damage or have shown that people aboard vessels represent an imminent risk to life” and that they would not attempt non -lethal alternatives, such as interception or arrest.
*Journalism in Venezuela is exercised in a hostile environment for the press with dozens of legal instruments arranged for the punishment of the word, especially the laws “against hatred”, “against fascism” and “against blockade.” This content was written taking into consideration the threats and limits that, consequently, have been imposed on the dissemination of information from within the country.
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