Two surviving “narcoterrorists” from a semi-submersible vessel that the US military destroyed in the Caribbean will be sent to Ecuador and Colombia, according to President Donald Trump.
On Saturday, Trump wrote on Truth Social, “It was my great honor to destroy a very large DRUG-CARRYING SUBMARINE that was navigating towards the United States on a well-known narcotrafficking transit route.”
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He claimed that US intelligence has verified that the ship was a source of fentanyl and other illegal drugs.
Trump described the attack as a strike intended to disrupt a significant route for the flow of drugs, which included a strike on the vessel on Thursday.
He claimed that two of the crew members died, and two of the crew members, who were airlifted by US forces to a nearby US Navy warship, perished.
The US military held the board’s survivors until Friday night, at least.
Ecuador’s government’s press office claimed it was unaware of the repatriation plans. Colombian authorities did not respond right away.
Since September, at least six vessels have been targeted by US strikes in the Caribbean, the majority of them speedboats. Venezuela is said to be the country’s source of some of them.
Washington claims that its campaign is a decisive blow to drug trafficking, but it has not provided any proof that the victims were drug smugglers.
At least 29 people have died as a result of US military actions against vessels in the area, according to Trump’s confirmation of the death toll on his Truth Social platform.
The president has argued that there is an “armed conflict” between the US and drug cartels, which supports the strikes. He relies on the same legal authority that the former US president’s administration used to declare war on terrorism following the September 11 attacks. This includes the ability to capture and hold combatants and use lethal force to overthrow their leaders. Trump also treats the alleged traffickers as if they were regular soldiers in a traditional war.
Democratic lawmakers and legal experts have voiced concerns about previous, similar strikes, which raise the possibility that they would contravene international law and violate accepted wartime authority.
Trump claimed in a statement to reporters on Friday that the most recent targeted vessel was “designed specifically for the transportation of massive amounts of drugs.”
US military expansion
A nuclear-powered submarine, guided missile destroyers, F-35 fighter jets, and about 6,500 troops are all part of the US military’s recent military expansion in the Caribbean. According to some, Washington is eying a direct confrontation with Venezuela as a result of the escalation.
Trump’s confirmation of his approval of the CIA’s covert operations on Venezuela on Wednesday heightened fears in Caracas that the US is attempting to overthrow President Nicolas Maduro.
Maduro has repeatedly denied involvement in drug trafficking and accused Washington of fabricating a false narrative to sway efforts to overthrow the government. He referred to the recent maritime strikes as “a viol of Venezuela’s sovereignty and international law.”
