US President Donald Trumpannounced this Tuesday a new attack against an alleged drug trafficking vessel off the coast of Venezuela, resulting in “six narcoterrorists dead.”
The action marks the fifth attack by the United States Army against ships in the Caribbean Sea, where Washington has deployed military ships and a submarine since August. With this raid, the total number of victims rises to 27.
Trump justifies the attack
Trump justified the operation by ensuring that “intelligence confirmed that the vessel was trafficking drugs, was associated with illicit narcoterrorist networks and was traveling on a known route” of these organizations.
“Under my Permanent Authorities as Commander in Chief, this morning, the Secretary of War ordered a lethal kinetic attack against a ship affiliated with a Designated Terrorist Organization (DTO) that carries out drug trafficking in the area of responsibility of the United States Southern Command, off the coast of Venezuela,” said the president through his social network Truth Social.
The announcement was accompanied by a black and white video, which shows a boat motionless at sea that is destroyed by the impact of a missile.
This context is framed in the tense bilateral relationship, in which Washington accuses Nicolás Maduro of leading a drug trafficking network known as the Poster of the Suns. Caracas rejects the accusations, denouncing them as an attempt by the United States to force a change of government in Venezuela.
