Admiral Frank Bradley assured US lawmakers that He received no order to execute or kill the survivors of a military attack against an alleged drug trafficking vessel in the Caribbean, near Venezuela.
The operation took place on September 2 and remains under investigation.
The statement was made Thursday during a classified briefing on Capitol Hill, amid growing questions about the legality of military action and the government directive that originated it.
Republican Senator Tom Cotton, chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, stated upon leaving the meeting that Admiral Bradley “He was very clear in stating that he did not receive any order of that type, neither to give no quarter nor to ‘kill them all’.
Cotton defended the operation and maintained that, in similar circumstances, he would have ordered multiple attacks.
Democrats question the government
However, not all legislators share that interpretation.
After watching the video of the second attack – in which two people who survived the first bombing died – Democratic representatives They described the episode as deeply disturbing.
Parliamentarian Adam Smith, Democratic leader of the House Armed Services Committee, assured that the operational instruction transmitted to military personnel was “destroy the drugs and kill the 11 people on the boat.”
According to Smith, the two survivors were “shirtless, clinging to the bow of an overturned and inoperative boat, adrift,” raising questions about whether they constituted a legitimate target.
Legislative scrutiny intensified after Washington Post revealed that Bradley had ordered a second attack to allegedly comply with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s order to “kill everyone.”
Legal experts cited by the newspaper warned that attacking people in a condition of survival, without combat capacity, could constitute a crime under international law.
Trump promised to release the video
President Donald Trump said Wednesday that the Pentagon will release the video of the second bombing, although he minimized the controversy. Likewise, the Secretary of Defense assured that he did not directly supervise the operation.
Meanwhile, a Defense Department official said NBCNews that Bradley considered the survivors “legitimate military targets,” by identifying them as alleged “narcoterrorists.”
Versions close to the case maintain that after the first attack the two people who were left alive They communicated with another vessel suspected of being involved in drug trafficking activities, which would have influenced the decision to attack them again.
21 attacks since August
Data confirmed by the Pentagon indicate that since the beginning of the military deployment in the Caribbean in August, 21 attacks have been carried out against alleged “drug boats”, with a balance of 82 dead people classified as “narcoterrorists”.
The White House links these operations to the fight against the Aragua Train and the Cartel of the Suns, organizations that Washington associates with criminal structures that emerged in Venezuela and that the Trump administration designated as terrorist entities.
These actions are part of the extensive US naval operation in the Caribbean and its growing pressure against the Nicolás Maduro regime.
