Washington, DC [US], September 3 : The United States killed 11 people in a deadly military strike against an alleged drug boat linked to the Venezuelan cartel 'Tren de Aragua', President Donald Trump said Tuesday.
"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 Organisation, 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 added.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio described the "lethal strike" as taking place in the "southern Caribbean" targeting "a drug vessel which had departed from Venezuela."
"As the President of the US just announced moments ago, 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 organisation, Rubio said in post on X.
The State Department has designated Tren de Aragua, which originated in Venezuela, as a foreign terrorist organisation and specially designated global terrorists in February, as per CNN.
The US has deployed a large number of military assets around the Caribbean and Latin America, drawing strong criticism from Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro.
Speaking before his departure for trips 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," he stated.
When asked by CNN about the legal authority for targeting cartels militarily, 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." He added, "The president has designated these as terrorist organisations, which is what they are."
US military was deploying more than 4,000 Marines and sailors to the waters around Latin America and the Caribbean as part of an intensified effort to combat drug cartels, demonstrating a show of force that gives the president a wide range of military options to target them, CNN has reported earlier.
The Trump administration has taken an aggressive stance against Latin American drug cartels, designating several as foreign terrorist organisations and specially designated global terrorists. Tom Karako, senior fellow at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies' Defence and Security Department, said that while he was unaware of previous instances of such action against a drug cartel, "on the other hand, I'm not sure that we would (know). It would not surprise me in the slightest if there were a dozen instances that we don't talk about."
Rubio paid a visit to the headquarters of US Southern Command last Friday, which oversees the deployed assets, and had previously indicated that military action against the cartels was possible. The strong US military presence has drawn sharp criticism from Maduro, whose bounty has been increased to USD 50 million by the Trump administration 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, asserting that he will not "bow to threats."
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