WASHINGTON – On Tuesday, President Donald Trump announced that the United States had conducted a strike in the southern Caribbean targeting a drug-laden vessel that had departed from Venezuela.
Dig deeper:
The president offered scant details on the operation.
What they’re saying:
“When you leave the room, you’ll see that we just, over the last few minutes, literally, shot a boat — a drug-carrying boat,” Trump told reporters during an unrelated Oval Office event. He added there were “a lot of drugs” on the vessel.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on X that the vessel was being operated by a “designated narco-terrorist organization.”
The press office of Venezuela’s government did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the announcement.
The Pentagon did not offer any immediate comment on the reported incident.
The backstory:
The U.S. recently announced plans to boost its maritime force in the waters off Venezuela to combat threats from Latin American drug cartels.
The U.S. has not signaled any planned land incursion by the thousands of personnel being deployed. Still, President Nicolás Maduro’s government has responded by deploying troops along Venezuela’s coast and border with neighboring Colombia, as well as by urging Venezuelans to enlist in a civilian militia.
The other side:
Maduro has insisted that the U.S. is building a false drug-trafficking narrative to try to force him out of office. He and other government officials have repeatedly cited a United Nations report that they say shows traffickers attempt to move only 5% of the cocaine produced in Colombia through Venezuela. Landlocked Bolivia and Colombia, with access to the Pacific and Caribbean, are the world’s top cocaine producers.
Maduro on Monday told reporters he “would constitutionally declare a republic in arms” if his country were attacked by U.S. forces deployed to the Caribbean.
The press office of Venezuela’s government did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Trump’s announcement.
Big picture view:
The latest U.N. World Drug Report shows that various countries in South America, including Colombia, Ecuador and Peru, reported larger cocaine seizures in 2022 than in 2021, but it does not assign Venezuela the outsize role that the White House has in recent months.
“The impact of increased cocaine trafficking has been felt in Ecuador in particular, which has seen a wave of lethal violence in recent years linked to both local and transnational crime groups, most notably from Mexico and the Balkan countries,” according to the report.
The Source: The Associated Press contributed to this report. The information in this story comes from statements made by U.S. officials and the absence of a response from Venezuela. President Donald Trump announced the strike during remarks on Tuesday. This story was reported from Los Angeles.