President Donald Trump said US forces in the Caribbean Sea “shot out” a boat after it left Venezuela. Washington has deployed several warships to the region and is preparing to conduct strikes inside Venezuela.
During a press conference on Tuesday, Trump told reporters that US forces “literally shot out a boat, a drug-carrying boat, lot of drugs in that boat.” He continued, “We have a lot of drugs pouring into our country, coming in for a long time. And these came out of Venezuela. And coming out very heavily from Venezuela. A lot of things are coming out of Venezuela. So we took it out.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio added context to the strike, claiming the boat was carrying drugs. “Today the U.S. military conducted a lethal strike in the southern Caribbean against a drug vessel which had departed from Venezuela and was being operated by a designated narco-terrorist organization,” he wrote on X.
Tuesday’s lethal attack follows a month-long US military buildup in the Caribbean. The US has deployed three guided-missile destroyers, an attack submarine, and approximately 4,000 Marines to the region. On Sunday, the Marines kicked off war games in Puerto Rico.
The Financial Times reported that the Trump administration is considering strikes inside Venezuela. “One possibility highlighted by experts is that Trump may decide to fire Tomahawk cruise missiles from Navy destroyers or the submarine at targets inside Venezuela,” the outlet explained. “These could include cocaine-producing laboratories or bases for Colombian Marxist guerrillas involved in the drug trade and operating from Venezuela.”
After Trump returned to the White House in January, the State Department began listing Latin American cartels as terror organizations. Earlier this year, Trump signed a secret order authorizing the Pentagon to target designated Latin American cartels on foreign soil and on international waters.
In July, the State Department added Cartel de los Soles as a terror organization and claimed Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro as the leader of the gang. However, there is limited evidence that Cartel de los Soles is a structured organization led by Maduro.
Last week, Axios reported that a US official said the goal in Venezuela could be removing Maduro from power. “This could be Noriega part 2,” they said.
Maduro has responded by pledging to defend Venezuela and mobilizing millions of militia troops.
