The United States has launched its fifth deadly strike in the Caribbean since early September, killing six people aboard a small vessel that U.S. authorities claim was transporting narcotics off the coast of Venezuela.
Former President Donald Trump announced the latest attack on Tuesday via his Truth Social platform, saying that the strike targeted “a small boat engaged in narcotrafficking” in international waters.
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“The strike was conducted in international waters, and six male narcoterrorists aboard the vessel were killed,” Trump wrote. “No U.S. forces were harmed.”
Trump claimed that intelligence confirmed the vessel’s connection to “illicit narcoterrorist networks” but offered no evidence to support the assertion. He said Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had ordered the operation earlier that morning and released video footage of the strike, as he has done in previous attacks.
The Associated Press reported that this latest strike marks the fifth such lethal action by the U.S. military in the region in just over a month. It comes as the Trump administration has declared that the United States is engaged in a “non-international armed conflict” with drug cartels operating in and around the Caribbean.
A classified internal memo, first reported by The New York Times, revealed that the administration has formally designated drug cartels involved in narcotics smuggling as “non-state armed groups” whose activities “constitute an armed attack against the United States.” This reclassification gives Washington broader authority to use military force under international law.
The White House has defended the Caribbean strikes as part of an intensified campaign against Tren de Aragua, a powerful transnational criminal network that the U.S. recently designated as a foreign terrorist organization. Administration officials have described the military operations as a “necessary escalation” to disrupt the narcotics trade and protect U.S. national security.
However, the campaign has sparked international condemnation and domestic political debate. Human rights organizations and legal experts, including a panel of United Nations rapporteurs, have denounced the strikes as extrajudicial executions that violate international law.
“International law does not allow governments to simply murder alleged drug traffickers,” the UN experts said in a statement. “Criminal activities should be disrupted, investigated, and prosecuted in accordance with the rule of law, including through international cooperation.”
Regional governments have also voiced concern. Colombian President Gustavo Petro recently accused Washington of recklessly endangering regional stability, claiming one of the boats targeted had Colombian nationals aboard. The White House dismissed Petro’s statement as “baseless and reprehensible,” demanding a retraction.
Meanwhile, in Washington, efforts to rein in the use of military force have faltered. A Senate measure that sought to restrict future strikes on suspected drug-smuggling vessels without congressional authorization was narrowly defeated, with nearly all Republicans and Democratic Senator John Fetterman voting against the proposal.
The continuation of these strikes underscores the Trump administration’s expanding military posture in the Caribbean, one that critics warn risks igniting a broader regional conflict while bypassing established mechanisms of justice and oversight.
