US military forces conducted a deadly strike Tuesday against a suspected drug smuggling vessel in the Caribbean Sea, killing 11 people aboard a boat that had departed from Venezuela.
The “precision strike” targeted what officials described as members of Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan criminal organization designated by the State Department as a foreign terrorist group. The operation took place in international waters in the southern Caribbean.
“Earlier this morning, on my Orders, US Military Forces conducted a kinetic strike against positively identified Tren de Aragua Narcoterrorists,” Trump wrote on Truth Social, releasing declassified video footage of the strike on a small speedboat.
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Secretary of State Marco Rubio confirmed the operation, calling it a “lethal strike” against a vessel “operated by a designated narco-terrorist organization.” Rubio said the targeted route was commonly used for drug trafficking and indicated similar operations would continue.
The strike escalates the Trump administration’s military approach to combating Latin American drug cartels. The US has deployed more than 4,000 Marines and sailors to Caribbean waters in recent weeks as part of an expanded counter-narcotics mission.
Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro has responded to the increased US military presence by deploying forces along his country’s coastline and calling the American naval deployment “an extravagant, unjustifiable, immoral and absolutely criminal and bloody threat.”
The Trump administration has increased the bounty on Maduro to $50 million, accusing the Venezuelan leader of controlling drug trafficking operations. Maduro was sworn in for a third term in January following an election widely criticized as fraudulent.
The operation is the first known lethal military action since the US boosted its naval presence in the region.
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