President of the United States Donald Trump has announced the strike against a drug-carrying vessel in the southern Caribbean by the United States military, killing 11 “narcoterrorists.”
In a post on his social media platform, Truth Social, Trump disclosed that the US military operation had targeted members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua. He stated that the watercraft was in international waters transporting illegal narcotic drugs restricted for the United States.
The Trump administration has in recent weeks ratcheted up military and political pressure against Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, including through a $50m (£37m) reward for information leading to his arrest on drug-trafficking charges.
However, Maduro has vowed Venezuela would fight any attempted intervention by the US military. In an interview in the Oval Office on Tuesday, Donald Trump said that US forces had “shot out” a “drug-carrying boat” in the vicinity of Venezuela.
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He said, “There are a lot of drugs in that boat.” Adding that he had been briefed on the incident by the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Dan Caine.
Later the president posted on his Truth Social platform: “Earlier this morning, on my orders, US Military Forces conducted a kinetic strike against positively identified Tren de Aragua Narcoterrorists in the SOUTHCOM area of responsibility.”
He also said, “The strike led to the killing of 11 terrorists in action. No US forces were harmed in this strike. Please let this serve as notice to anybody even thinking about bringing drugs into the United States of America. BEWARE!”
His post was accompanied by a grainy aerial video showing a motorboat speeding across choppy waters before it bursts into flames.
In a social media post, Venezuela’s communications minister, Freddy Ñáñez, suggested, without evidence, that the video shared by Trump was created with artificial intelligence.
It is unclear the kind of drugs the vessel is believed to have been carrying.
Trump’s administration, upon assuming office earlier this year, has assigned countless drug trafficking bodies and criminal groups in America and somewhere around Latin America as terrorist entities.
The Trump administration has continually shown a willingness to exert pressure to stalk the flow of drugs into the US. “There’s more where that came from,” Trump said of the strike on the vessel.
The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela has reacted furiously to the dispositions.
