The US military has struck two vessels allegedly used by drug cartels, the US Southern Command said.
According to a statement published in X, the Joint Task Force of Operation “Southern Spear“ began the strikes on December 31 at the direction of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
“Intelligence confirmed that the vessels were traveling on known drug smuggling routes and were involved in drug smuggling“, the U.S. Southern Command said.
After the strikes, according to U.S. military officials, three people aboard the first ship and two aboard the second were killed.
Washington accuses Caracas of not being active enough in the fight against drug smuggling. In August, U.S. President Donald Trump signed a classified directive for the use of military force against Latin American drug cartels.
Substantial additional U.S. forces were then deployed to the Caribbean, including a strike group led by the aircraft carrier “Gerald R. Ford“. In recent months, the US military has destroyed approximately 30 ships off the coast of Latin America under the pretext of combating drug trafficking, killing more than 100 people.
After one of these strikes, Colombian President Gustavo Petro said that the US operation resulted in the death of a fisherman from his country, not a drug dealer.