THE NEW YORK TIMES: It was the fourth strike in the Trump administration’s legally disputed campaign targeting suspected drug runners in the Caribbean Sea.
The U.S. military killed four men aboard a boat in international waters near Venezuela, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced on Friday, in the first such strike since the Trump administration told Congress that the United States was engaged in a formal “armed conflict” with Latin American cartels.
In his posting, Mr. Hegseth accused the four dead men of having been smuggling narcotics, without offering evidence. He also asserted that they were “affiliated” with one of the cartels and gangs that the Trump administration has designated as foreign terrorist organizations, but did not specify which.
The strike was the fourth known attack by the U.S. military on boats in the Caribbean Sea dating back to Sept. 2. In all, the military has now summarily killed 21 people it says were smuggling drugs as if they were not criminal suspects but enemy soldiers in a war zone.
“Our intelligence, without a doubt, confirmed that this vessel was trafficking narcotics, the people onboard were narco-terrorists, and they were operating on a known narco-trafficking transit route,” Mr. Hegseth wrote. “These strikes will continue until the attacks on the American people are over!!!!” » | Charlie Savage | Reporting from Washington | Friday, October 3, 2025
En español:
El ejército de EE. UU. ataca otro barco cerca de Venezuela, según Hegseth: Se trata del cuarto ataque de la campaña del gobierno de Donald Trump contra presuntos narcotraficantes en el mar Caribe. »