CNN- The United States conducted a deadly military strike against an alleged drug boat tied to the cartel Tren de Aragua, President Donald Trump said Tuesday.
The US president said 11 people were killed in the strike in “international waters.” Secretary of State Marco Rubio described the “lethal strike” as taking place in the “southern Caribbean” against “a drug vessel which had departed from Venezuela.”
The use of military force against Latin American drug cartels represents a significant escalation by the Trump administration and could have serious implicatons for the region.
“Earlier this morning, on my Orders, U.S. Military Forces conducted a kinetic strike against positively identified Tren de Aragua Narcoterrorists in the SOUTHCOM area of responsibility. TDA is a designated Foreign Terrorist Organization, operating under the control of Nicolas Maduro, responsible for mass murder, drug trafficking, sex trafficking, and acts of violence and terror across the United States and Western Hemisphere,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social.
“Please let this serve as notice to anybody even thinking about bringing drugs into the United States of America. BEWARE!” he wrote.
The State Department designated Tren de Aragua, which originated in Venezuela, as a foreign terrorist organization and specially designated global terrorists in February.
The US has amassed a large number of military assets around the Caribbean and Latin America, drawing the ire of Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro.
CNN has asked the Venezuelan government for comment.
In remarks before he departed on a trip to Mexico and Ecuador on Tuesday, Rubio said the “counter-drug mission” would continue.
“We are going to wage combat against drug cartels that are flooding American streets and killing Americans,” Rubio said. He said the route from Venezuela was a “common” one.
Asked by CNN about the legal authority for militarily targeting the cartels, Rubio said, “I’m not going to answer for the White House counsel, suffice it to say that all of those steps were taken in advance.”
“The president has designated these as terrorist organizations, which is what they are,” he said.
Trump on Tuesday afternoon said the US military “just over the last few minutes, literally shot out a boat, a drug carrying boat.”
“It just happened moments ago, and our great general, head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff … he gave us a little bit of a briefing,” Trump said.
“There’s more where that came from,” he said, noting that “a lot of drugs” are “pouring into” the US from Venezuela.
A senior defense official confirmed a “precision strike” against an alleged drug vessel in the southern Caribbean, but did not offer further details about the operation.
CNN previously reported that the US military was deploying more than 4,000 Marines and sailors to the waters around Latin America and the Caribbean as part of a ramped-up effort to combat drug cartels, according to two US defense officials — a show of force that has given the president a broad range of military options should he want to target drug cartels.
The Trump administration has taken an aggressive approach to combating Latin American drug cartels, designating many of them as foreign terrorist organizations and specially designated global terrorists.
On Friday, Rubio visited the headquarters of US Southern Command, which has responsibility for the deployed assets. The top US diplomat had previously suggested that military action against the cartels was a possibility.
The robust military presence in the region has drawn heated remarks from Maduro. The Trump administration has increased the bounty for the Venezuelan president to $50 million for drug trafficking.
“It is an extravagant threat… absolutely criminal, bloody. They have wanted to move forward with what they call maximum pressure, and in the face of maximum military pressure, we have prepared maximum readiness,” Maduro said Monday, adding that he will not “bow to threats.”
CNN’s Kylie Atwood, Natasha Bertrand, Haley Britzky, Stefano Pozzebon, Ivonne Valdes Garay, Sol Amaya and Lauren Kent contributed to this report.
This story and headline have been updated with additional details.
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Mek it make sense. Venezuela knows that the US have ships in the Caribbean Sea, do you believe they would be moving drugs? I honestly believe that it is just a pretext for other strikes.
Trump and this American Government are just a Farce.It is not ok for Caribbean Drugs to kill Americans, But it is ok for them not putting Proper regulations on the make and purchase of all the ilkegal Guns that’s killing our young me in the Caribbean. Trump and the Republican Party is worse than a Terrorist Gang. America needs to First clean it’s own Backyard.Watch all what putin is Doing in Ukraine but your white Balls not strong enough to go afrer Russia. America Must Fall and Burn like Hell.
Is this an AI image to whip up support for a war for oil? But in any case I back trump 100% getting rid of the drugs off the street, they are terrorist to the future of mankind, and there is this phentinyl drug that have heaps of American like zombie leaning over on the street . we can’t have that continue to take over the world or we are doomed like been hit by a nuclear bomb. And whoever the white drug lord is in America is untouchable because they sure ain’t black because blacks don’t enjoy the same privilege like whites.
But why would Maduro who could steal the oil monies that is more than drugs be involved in petty drug? This is made up for the USA companies to get the army to kill the Venezuela president and people and take the oil, it could never be right if someone was to kill trump and take over American resources.
Why he didn’t start with Fauci and Bill Gates and their pharmaceutical companies that kill and injure so many worldwide with their legal drugs.
This is bigger than Rubio. Bigger than Trump.