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📂 Category: Colombia,Donald Trump news,Gustavo Petro,nicholas maduro,venezuela
📌 Main takeaway:
The US military has killed dozens of people in attacks targeting small ships in the waters off South America since early September.
President Donald Trump says the deadly attacks are aimed at combating drug trafficking. But the unilateral strikes have raised questions from lawmakers, including Republicans, about his legal authority to use lethal force and what supporting evidence the Pentagon has that the people on those boats are connected to drug trafficking or narco-terrorism.
So far, the Trump administration has acknowledged carrying out at least 14 strikes against boats suspected of transporting drugs, killing more than 60 people.
The United States began beefing up its military presence in the Caribbean Sea, especially off Venezuela, this summer, saying it was necessary to counter the drug trade.
Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth have cited intelligence they claim proves the boats are involved in narco-terrorism or transporting drugs into the United States. They sometimes said that the people on board belonged to specific criminal organizations. They did not provide public evidence to support their claims. Republican lawmakers received a military briefing on the operation this week, but Democrats were left out.
Read more: UN High Commissioner for Human Rights: US strikes on alleged drug boats “unacceptable”
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, who was indicted on federal narco-terrorism charges during Trump’s first term, accused Trump of seeking regime change and refuted Trump’s claims that he plays a major role in smuggling drugs into the United States. Maduro, an authoritarian leader who is not recognized by the United States and other countries as Venezuela’s legitimate president, also pledged an “armed republic” if US forces were directly involved.
Colombian President Gustavo Petro has called the strikes “an act of tyranny,” asking in late September why the Trump administration would “launch a missile if you can simply stop the boat and arrest the crew.”
“This is what we would call murder,” Pietro added.
Here’s a look at every strike the US military has carried out so far.
September 2
Watch the clip in the player above.
How many boats were attacked? 1
Location or origin: The ship departed from Venezuela
How many were killed: 11
What did the United States say? Trump justified the US military’s first attack by describing the ship as a “drug boat” operated by the Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan cartel-turned-multinational criminal group that the administration has designated as a foreign terrorist organization. The president said that “a lot of drugs” were on board.
Why is it important? Trump and his government officials said the goal of the strike was to combat drugs flowing into the United States. Combating the drug trade would typically be the province of law enforcement, not the military, experts told PBS News.
Maduro described the first strike as a “heinous crime.” The Venezuelan president also said that if the United States believed the boat’s passengers were smugglers, they should have detained them.
September 15
How many boats were attacked? 1
Location or origin: From Venezuela
How many were killed: 3
What did the United States say? Trump posted a video of a boat engulfed in black smoke on social media. He said he ordered the hit on the boat that was “transporting illegal drugs.” Trump later told reporters: “We have proof” that the boat was carrying drugs, though he did not provide details.
Why is it important? Since the first strike was no longer an isolated incident, the second attack raised more questions about the Trump administration’s legal justifications for the killings.
Vice President J.D. Vance posted on X that “killing cartel members who poison our citizens is the highest and best use of our military.” Republican Senator Rand Paul criticized Vance’s comment as “vile and reckless sentiment” to glorify “lynching someone.”
The raid killed a Colombian man named Alejandro Carranza. His family and Pietro said Carranza was a fisherman and had no ties to drug trafficking.
“The United States invaded our national territory, launched a missile to kill a humble fisherman, and destroyed his family and children,” Petro wrote on social media, according to the Associated Press, adding that he had asked his country’s judicial system to initiate international legal proceedings.
September 19
How many boats were attacked? 1
Location or origin: In the Caribbean Sea
How many were killed: 3
What did the United States say? Trump announced a third strike, saying the target was “trafficking illegal drugs.” His social media post said that “intelligence confirmed” that the targeted ship belonged to a “specified terrorist organization,” although he did not provide evidence of whether or how the ship was linked to drug cartels. Hegseth posted a video purporting to show the raid.
October 3
How many boats were attacked? 1
Location or origin: In the waters off Venezuela
How many were killed: 4
What did the United States say? Hegseth announced that the United States had carried out a fourth boat strike. Without providing further details, Hegseth said that US intelligence had confirmed “without a doubt” that the boat was drug trafficking and that the people on board were “narco-terrorists.”
Why is it important? A day before that attack, The Associated Press obtained Trump’s memo to Congress that declared that the United States was now in a “non-international armed conflict” with drug cartels and that suspects involved in these operations were considered “unlawful combatants.”
Days after the attack, Petro said the boat was from Colombia and had Colombian citizens on board. The White House denied the allegation, calling Petro’s claims “baseless.”
October 14
How many boats were attacked? 1
Location or origin: Off the Venezuelan coast
How many were killed: 6
What did the United States say? Trump announced the fifth strike against a boat he said belonged to a “terrorist organization,” but did not identify the group nor the nationality of the people on board.
Why is it important? Later in the week, Trump confirmed that he had allowed the CIA to conduct covert operations inside Venezuela and raised the possibility of striking the country on the ground, raising the temperature of the conflict.
October 16
How many ships were attacked? 1
Location or origin: Caribbean Sea
How many were killed: 2, plus 2 survivors
What did the United States say? A semi-submersible vehicle suspected of drug smuggling has become the sixth ship to be attacked. Trump said on the Truth Social website that two people were killed, and that the two who survived “will be returned to their countries of origin, Ecuador and Colombia, for detention and trial.”
Why is it important? For the first time in this series of American strikes, there were known survivors. The United States decided to return them to their homeland instead of placing them in military custody. Colombian officials said they would open an investigation into the activities of the survivors who suffered injuries. However, the Colombian judicial system’s ability to prosecute him is limited, one official told El Pais, because there is no evidence of a crime. Ecuador released the survivor, saying that “there was no report of a crime.”
On the same day of the strike, US Admiral Alvin Hulsey announced his surprise retirement as commander of US Southern Command.
October 17
How many boats were attacked? 1
Location or origin: The Defense Secretary said the boat was in the US Southern Command’s area of responsibility, which includes the Caribbean Sea.
How many were killed: 3
What did the United States say? Heggith said that the United States attacked a ship suspected of “transporting large quantities of drugs.” This time, the Trump administration said its target was the National Liberation Army, a Colombian rebel group that the United States designated as a foreign terrorist organization in 1997.
Why is it important? In a social media post hours before Hegseth announced the strike, Trump escalated his criticism of Colombia’s Petro, saying it had done nothing to stop drug production and calling him an “illegal drug lord.”
After announcing the strike, Petro urged Latin America and the Caribbean to unite and reject any external aggression. “Venezuela belongs to Venezuelans. This is not a defense of Maduro, but a defense of Latin American sovereignty,” he wrote in a post on X.
October 21
How many boats were attacked? 1
Location or origin: Eastern Pacific
How many were killed: 2
What did the United States say? In announcing this strike against a boat suspected of carrying drugs, Hegseth referred to the two people killed as “drug terrorists” and compared them to the September 11 attacks. He said: “Just as Al-Qaeda is waging war on our homeland, these gangs are waging war on our borders and our people. There will be no refuge or forgiveness, only justice.”
Why is it important? This strike was the first time that the US military campaign extended beyond the Caribbean. The United States carried out the raid despite a warning from the United Nations Human Rights Council the previous day.
October 22
How many boats were attacked? 1
Location or origin: Eastern Pacific
How many were killed: 3
What did the United States say? Hegseth announced the ninth strike again in the Pacific. At the end of a 26-second video clip he posted on social media, white containers appear floating on the water. Hegseth said the strikes “will continue day after day.”
October 24
How many boats were attacked? 1
Location or origin: Caribbean Sea
How many were killed: 6
What did the United States say? Hegseth announced an attack during the night, saying that the targeted boat was operated by Tren de Aragua. He said, citing intelligence information, without providing further details, that the ship was “involved in illegal drug smuggling.”
Why is it important? Hegseth noted that the raid was the first to occur at night.
In a televised address to his country, Maduro accused Trump of “creating a new eternal war,” the Associated Press reported, as the USS Gerald R. Ford, one of the world’s largest aircraft carriers, approached Venezuela.
October 27
How many boats were attacked? 4
Location or origin: Eastern Pacific
How many were killed: 14 plus one survivor
What did the United States say? The US military carried out three strikes against four ships suspected of transporting drugs. Hegseth posted a 28-second video that partially shows two ships exploding side by side in the water. He also said that Mexican authorities had taken over responsibility for coordinating the search and rescue of the sole survivor.
Why is it important? The multiple strikes on October 27 marked one of the largest escalations and the highest death toll in a single strike to date. This was also the first time Mexico was involved in a US military campaign.
October 29
How many boats were attacked? 1
Location or origin: Eastern Pacific
How many were killed: 4
What did the United States say? Again, citing “intelligence”, Hegseth said the vessel was “involved in illicit drug trafficking” and traveling along a “known drug trafficking route”.
He added in his social media post: “The Western Hemisphere is no longer a safe haven for drug terrorists who bring drugs to our shores to poison Americans.”
This story will be updated as additional strikes occur.
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