The day is September 2nd - a US reconnaissance plane is following a ship over the Caribbean Sea, and the longer it is monitored by the intelligence command center, the more confident it is that the 11 people on board are transporting drugs. Then US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth gives a verbal order to kill everyone on board, writes the “Washington Post“, citing two officials present at the scene.
A missile takes off off the coast of Trinidad, hits the ship and sets it on fire from bow to stern. For minutes, commanders watch the burning ship live via drone. As the smoke cleared, two survivors were seen clinging to the smoldering remains.
Special Operations Commander Admiral Frank Bradley, who led the attack, ordered a second strike to comply with Hegseth's instructions. The two men were torn apart in the water.
The case has plunged the administration of US President Donald Trump into a political and legal storm in recent days, Al Jazeera reported.
Yesterday, the president distanced himself from the decision to launch the second strike. He said he "knew nothing" and "didn't get much information yet because I'm relying on Pete (Hegseth)." "I was not involved in that," Trump added.
Speaking at a White House cabinet meeting, Hegseth explained that he did not see any survivors in the water after the initial strike and described the scene as chaotic and obscured by debris, Newsweek reported.
"The ship exploded in fire and smoke, you couldn't see anything... It's called the fog of war," Hegseth said. He added that he "didn't stay" for the rest of the mission. Hegseth stressed that the commander on the ground "made the right decision" in ordering the follow-up strike, and pointed out: "The admiral had every right to do it."
Later, in two posts on social media, the US Secretary of Defense described what happened as "legal under US and international law" and noted: “We are just getting started on killing narco-terrorists“, the “Axios“ reported.
“The stated goal is to stop the deadly drugs, destroy the drug boats, and kill the narco-terrorists who are poisoning the American people“, Hegseth wrote.
According to a number of experts, however, the second strike was illegal.
“Instead of having due process and prosecution, the Trump administration decided to be its own court, jury, and executioner and determined that these individuals were transporting drugs and ordered them killed, which is murder without a trial“, military expert Rachel van Landingham told “Al Jazeera“. "This second strike against people in the water, desperately clinging to the wreckage of their boat, is a war crime," she added.
In the weeks following the strike, the Trump administration notified Congress that the United States was in a "non-domestic armed conflict" with "designated terrorist organizations," and an opinion from the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel ruled that because the United States was in a state of armed conflict, personnel participating in strikes and following the laws of war would not be subject to prosecution.
Earlier this year, the Trump administration officially designated the Venezuelan criminal group "Tren de Aragua" for a terrorist organization and accused Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro of being the head of the “Cartel de los Soles“, which according to US services is a drug trafficking network that includes high-ranking officials in the government and the country's armed forces.
In reality, the “Cartel de los Soles“ is not a cartel, but simply a broad term used by Venezuelans for corrupt senior officials. In addition, the US Drug Enforcement Agency identifies countries other than Venezuela as the main sources of drugs entering the US, notes the “New York Times“.
However, these statements by the US president led to the launch of Operation “Southern Spear“, which has so far killed 83 people suspected of drug trafficking in 21 strikes on boats.
The legality of the entire operation has also been questioned. The alleged traffickers do not pose an immediate threat of attack against the United States and are not, as the Trump administration has tried to claim, in an "armed conflict" with Washington, several experts told the Washington Post. Since there is no legitimate war between the two countries, eliminating the men on the boats "is tantamount to murder," said Todd Huntley, a former military lawyer.
Even if the US were at war with the traffickers, an order to kill everyone on board if they could no longer fight would be "essentially an order to show no mercy, which would be a war crime," he explained.
Trump White House officials have explained that because drug traffickers can finance terrorism and are part of transnational criminal organizations, they pose a threat to US national security and therefore fall within the scope of the use of military force.
But some Pentagon officials, including lawyers, have argued that the traffickers are not terrorists but criminals, and that the tools of war should not be used against them.
Human rights groups and international experts have also criticized the campaign as illegal.
“There is no legal basis for treating the war on drugs as an armed conflict,” said Agafia Hossein, senior adviser at Human Rights Watch.
Democrats in Congress have called for an investigation. "The disproportionate use of force and the circumvention of the legal framework for military operations is deeply troubling," said Democratic Senator Chris Murphy. "We need transparency," he added.
But Republicans defended the White House's actions. "The cartels are international criminal networks that kill Americans," said Senator Tom Cotton, noting that "the president has every right to eliminate them."
However, after the first deadly strikes, the Pentagon changed the protocols for the operation, emphasizing rescuing survivors whenever possible.
On October 16, a strike in the Atlantic Ocean killed two people and captured two others and repatriated them to Colombia and Ecuador. On October 27, a series of strikes on four boats in the Eastern Pacific killed 14 people and left one presumed survivor for the Mexican Coast Guard to retrieve. However, he was not found.
Recent events have brought the United States and Venezuela to the brink of war, wrote the British newspaper “Telegraph“, and the BBC recalled that the American military presence in the Caribbean Sea began in August with the deployment of air and naval forces, including a nuclear-powered submarine and reconnaissance aircraft.
Washington has massed troops in the region, sending its largest aircraft carrier “Gerald R. Ford“ at the head of an armada of 11 warships to the Caribbean Sea. About 15,000 military personnel and about 100 combat aircraft are also on standby.
Yesterday, US President Donald Trump said during a cabinet meeting at the White House that strikes against Venezuelan territory are inevitable. "It's much easier by land, and we know the routes they use," he said. "We know everything about them. We know where the bad guys live, and we're starting soon," Trump said.
Venezuela condemned the US president's comments as a "colonialist threat," USA Today reported. Maduro's administration said the strikes violated international law and stressed that Venezuela would take the matter to the United Nations.
"They are carrying out extrajudicial executions in international waters and threatening to extend these actions to sovereign territory," Venezuelan Foreign Minister Ivan Gil said on November 29. “This is an act of aggression.“
A group of US senators that has repeatedly tried to limit President Donald Trump's aggression against Venezuela said yesterday, quoted by Reuters, that they would introduce a new resolution to force Congress to vote if the administration carried out a strike on Caracas.
“An unauthorized military operation against Venezuela would be a colossal and costly mistake that needlessly endangers the lives of our service members,“ Democrats Tim Kaine, Chuck Schumer and Adam Schiff, as well as Republican Rand Paul, said in a joint statement.
However, Trump's Republicans in the Senate already blocked a resolution in November that would have prevented him from attacking Venezuelan territory without congressional authorization. In October, Republicans in the Senate also blocked a resolution that would have stopped the strikes on small boats.
Many, in turn, fear that the announced operation against drug trafficking could be just the beginning of a larger operation to overthrow the regime of Nicolas Maduro, writes “Telegraph“.
President Donald Trump admitted that he had authorized the CIA to conduct covert operations in Venezuela, although the details are highly classified, the BBC recalls.
“The level of forces and the fact that they are clearly not intended only to combat drug trafficking have raised suspicions that the US may be heading for war with Venezuela“, says Henry Zimmer of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Over the weekend, it became clear - if there was any doubt at all - that the ultimate goal was regime change. Reports emerged that Trump had offered Maduro and his family safe passage out of Venezuela if he resigned immediately, but the talks fell through, US media reported.
On Saturday, the US president stepped up the pressure, warning airlines and pilots that the airspace over the country was closed. "Don't interpret anything," he said, as analysts suggested that this was a signal for the start of air strikes.
Evan Ellis, a professor of Latin American studies at the US War College, believes strikes are likely within a week. And that this could be just the first step. "There will be no American invasion or occupation, but we can go in, capture the people we need and pave the way for a legitimate government," he said.
Meanwhile, the Trump administration has doubled the reward for information leading to Maduro's capture, the BBC reported.
Maduro himself has in recent weeks beefed up his personal security, mainly from Cuban mercenaries, the New York Times noted. To protect himself from a potential precision strike or special forces raid, he frequently changes his sleeping quarters and his cell phones. These measures have intensified since September, when the US began massing warships and striking boats.
Aides to the Venezuelan president described an atmosphere of tension and anxiety among his inner circle to the publication, while adding that he believes the situation is still under control and can withstand the latest and most serious threat to his 12-year rule.
Maduro categorically denies being a cartel leader and has accused the US of using the “war on drugs“ as an excuse to try to overthrow him and seize Venezuela's vast oil reserves.