A MQ-9 Reaper unmanned aerial vehicle prepares to land after a mission in support of Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan. (U.S. Air Force photo/Staff Sgt. Brian Ferguson)
President Donald Trump said on September 19 that the United States military has carried out a third “lethal kinetic strike” targeting a boat that he claimed was “trafficking illicit narcotics”, killing at least three men on board.
In a Truth Social post that included a video of the strike, Trump said that no Americans were harmed. He didn’t specify where the boat was located, but he said it was in international waters in the U.S. Southern Command area of responsibility, which covers the Caribbean Sea and South America.
“Intelligence confirmed the vessel was trafficking illicit narcotics, and was transiting along a known narcotrafficking passage enroute to poison Americans,” he wrote. “STOP SELLING FENTANYL, NARCOTICS, AND ILLEGAL DRUGS IN AMERICA, AND COMMITTING VIOLENCE AND TERRORISM AGAINST AMERICANS!!!”
For the first two strikes, which were announced on September 2 and 15, Trump alleged that the boats hailed from Venezuela. However, this time he didn’t mention a country of origin.
Tensions have been on the rise between Venezuela and the U.S. since August, when the Trump administration doubled the reward for the arrest of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro to $50 million on drug trafficking charges then deployed a large naval force with more than 4,000 troops close to the country’s shores on a “counter narco-terror operation”.
Trump’s latest announcement came as Venezuela accused the U.S. of waging an “undeclared war” in the Caribbean and called for a United Nations probe into the strikes.
Venezuela launched three days of military exercises on its Caribbean island of La Orchila on September 18 in an apparent response to the perceived threat from the US flotilla.
“It is an undeclared war, and you can already see how people, whether or not they are drug traffickers, have been executed in the Caribbean Sea,” Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino Lopez said on September 19 as he attended a military exercise.
“The victims have been “executed without the right to a defense”, he added.
Prior to the exercise, Maduro ordered the activation of 284 “fronts of battle” across the country with a force made up from the military, police and civilian volunteers. He said that the mobilization, codenamed “Plan Independencia 200,” would keep Venezuela’s coastline free of “imperialists, invaders and violent groups.”
Trump himself has already hinted earlier in the week that a regime change in Caracas was not completely out of the question.
Despite all recent escalation, talks between the U.S. and Venezuela are not completely impossible as Trump has favored making deals in the past before engaging in military operations.
What could encourage this path is the fact that not all the Venezuelan opposition is onboard with an intervention. Opposition figure Henrique Capriles, a two-time presidential candidate and staunch Maduro critic, said on September 19 that he would not support any invasion by the U.S.
“I continue to believe that the solution is not military, but political,” he said, adding that Trump’s actions were counterproductive and “entrenching those in power”.
Speaking in an interview at the Conservative Political Action Conference event in Paraguay on September 16, Richard Grenell, Trump’s envoy for special missions, said that he believes that the United States and Venezuela can still reach a peaceful agreement and avoid war.
“I’ve been to see Nicolás Maduro,” said Grenell. “I’ve sat across from him, I’ve articulated the America First position, I understand what he wants. I believe that we can still have a deal, I believe in diplomacy. I believe in avoiding war.”
While Venezuela will likely remain cautious, Maduro will not likely reject any talks with the U.S. as he always welcomed diplomatic outreach.
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as a disgusting americunt gay hillbilly i endorse trump –hunter biden for dea director
can i direct jizz swallowing in our burgerland parks
i’d wanna see some evidence that those boats were laden with drugs. and from the venezuelan side, i’d wanna know what those boats were doing if not smuggling drugs.
demanding evidence is probably antisemitic
true. killing of arabs is antisemitism too, because arabs – semitic majority. but we have no specified word for anti-arabian mood, that’s strange. antisemitism should describe crimes against arabs. against jews – judeophobia. antisemite number 1 is sataniyahu.
muslims claim “islamophobia” every damn day. almost as bad as their jewish cousins.
abrahamic bs…..
some radicals trying to use this even in russia, but nobody care. islamophobia is the same crap as “islamofascism” and “antisemitism” (in wrong meaning). but it’s not equal to phobia towards arabs, because arabs are minority among muslims. that’s why i propose to use antisemitism apart of judeophobia. what we see in palestine is irrational hatred towards arabs, so it’s antisemitism.
the current government of venezuela should make a list of all those who support an armed attack by a foreign power in sovereign venezuelan soil. it is treason. as soon as the bombs start falling in venezuela the armed force, the police and the peoples militias should carry out justice against, traitors , enemies of the state and all those venezuelans who want to gain from an illegal war of agression.
once all the rats are euthanized the bubonic plague stops.
if the pirates of the caribbean can act as victim, accuser, police, district attorney, jury, judge, executioners and conduct extra judicial killings in international waters completely out of their jurisdiction, then i don’t see why the venezuelan government headed by madure could not do the same in venezuela’s own territory against the internal enemies of their state.
you have to understand that now that assad is gone, the israelis have a free path to attack iran, and the us now that assad is gone has a new victim – maduro.
venezuela was recognized by the un as drug free country with no drug laboratories on its soil. drugs delivered mainly from colombia to sell or to use the country as transit point to bordering regions of neighbors. if trump wish to fight against narcomafia, he could strike mexican cartels, colombian or start cleaning dea with some departments of fbi and cia who covers drug routes from mexico and colombia. “los zetas” cartel was established with official help of fbi, read this amazing story.
everybody with a half brain knows that. it’s not about drugs, but about oil and politic.
trumpo is a halfwit. this will cause further problems in latin america as a whole, more latin americans will see this as blatant and overt racism and cause the region to pivot to anti-americanism and towards china.
this is the same kind of blind spot the ancient romans had when they forced the whole world to make coalitions against their tyranny.
ancien rome was slowly hijacked by a “marxist like revolution”. we call it today “christianisation”. it takes 3 centuries to slowly replace the former polytheist cult with christianity. christians were considered as jews trying to infiltrate the state by the roman emperors. and it was true, slowly the marxist like christianity taken control of the society and constantin was made christian when he died.
this is true, if you by marxist mean the older marx, which had fall for the one ring, and start to count. as young, he write that everything depends on humans relationship with nature. humanity are fouled by its own destiny, karma.
the 1st rome’s end was done by long chain of military coups almost every year in last period of its history. german mercenary generals became emperors one after another. full scale barbarian invasion of germans and goths ruined rome at the end. but constantine created the 2nd rome – eastern roman empire which existed for 1000 years more. in 1204 crusaders attacked and robed christian constantinople. empire was divided between leaders of the crusade. turks later did the same as german and goths.
when you have the world’s largest supply of oil then the thieves are going to find a way to steal it. that’s what thieves do.
this extra judicial killing, murder on the high seas. it must be stopped.
there is no way the boats shown could carry the fuel to get near american waters. almost all current drug smuggling routes pass through american ports. cocaine and bananas from ecuador pass organic matter customs scanners. drones are too easy to use over boarders.
this is propaganda for to make the nazi movement in “us” high on murder. its the same as in nazi germany, and for the nazis occupying palestine.