A day after President Trump informed Congress that the US is in a “non-international armed conflict” with drug cartels, the US carried out yet another strike on a Venezuelan boat in the Caribbean Sea, alleging it was loaded with drugs.
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth announced the attack on social media, claiming the attack on the small boat killed four “narco-terrorists.” President Trump went on to claim, without evidence, that the boat was loaded with enough drugs to kill 25,000 to 50,000 people and was “entering American territory.”
In reality, the boat attacked was off the coast of Venezuela, far from US territorial waters. Secretary Hegseth further claimed that the US had intelligence the four were affiliated with a “designated terrorist organization” but did not specify which nor show the evidence.
The US has attacked multiple Venezuelan boats in recent weeks, with US officials saying the goal of the strikes is regime change in Venezuela as opposed to the war on drugs. Along with the airstrikes of boats, a US destroyer boarded and seized a Venezuelan boat in mid-September, which the Venezuelan government insists was a tuna fishing vessel.
The administration’s strikes are fueling growing opposition within Congress, with ranking Democrat on the Armed Services Committee Sen. Jack Reed (D – RI) saying the strikes were unconstitutional, and Sen. Rand Paul (R – KY) saying that “blowing them up without knowing who’s on the boat is a terrible policy, and it should end.”
Sen. Jim Risch (R – ID), the chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said that he believes Trump is allowed to attack the boats by virtue of “his general powers under the Constitution.” Many in the Senate, however, argue there is a legal process to be followed, and the unilateral attacking of boats isn’t it.
Sen. Mark Kelly (D – AZ) was concerned in particular about the legality of the strikes under international law, wondering of the officers involved in the strikes “What situation did we, did the White House, just put them in?”
Though President Trump informed Congress after the fact of the strikes by way of claiming a general armed conflict, there is as yet no indication Congressional leadership intends to bring the question of the ongoing US strikes to a vote.
