Members of the US Congress have launched an investigation into reports that the US military intentionally killed survivors of a boat crash in the Caribbean in September, Congressman Mike Turner told CBS.
“Congress has no information that this actually happened. The chairmen of the Senate and House Armed Services committees and senior Democrats on them have launched investigations. If this happened, it is certainly very serious. And I agree that such actions would be illegal“, said Turner, commenting on a publication in The Washington Post.
The newspaper, citing its sources, reported that in early September, Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth ordered the killing of all people aboard a boat in the southern Caribbean. According to the publication, drugs were being transported on board, and the US military carried out two strikes on September 2. The first was to destroy a boat carrying 11 people. The second was intended to kill two survivors who were in the water, clinging to the wreckage of the vessel.
“Congress is deeply concerned about the strikes on so-called drug trafficking vessels in the Caribbean and the Pacific and the legal justifications presented for this“, added the lawmaker, who is a member of the House Armed Services Committee. According to Turner, the information presented in the publication “completely goes beyond” the explanations previously given to lawmakers by the US authorities regarding their measures to combat drug trafficking.
When asked whether he believed that the US would launch strikes on Venezuelan territory, the congressman replied: “The President did not say that. And he certainly did not warn Congress that this would happen, nor did he provide any justification for it.”
According to Turner, “there is a buildup of US forces” in the region, for which the Washington administration has not provided a comprehensive explanation to US lawmakers.
On November 29, Trump wrote on the social media platform TruthSocial that “all airlines, pilots, drug traffickers and people” should consider “the airspace over and around Venezuela to be completely prohibited“. He later clarified that his words should not be taken as an indication that the US military could launch strikes on Venezuelan territory.
As The Wall Street Journal reported on November 29, citing sources, Trump told Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in a phone call that Washington could use force if he did not leave office voluntarily. On November 30, the White House confirmed that he had spoken to Maduro, but did not provide details.
According to CNN, US forces have destroyed more than 20 motorboats off the coast of Latin America in recent months under the pretext of combating drug trafficking, killing more than 80 people. After one of these strikes, Colombian President Gustavo Petro said that the US operation killed a fisherman, not a drug trafficker from his country.
Washington accuses Caracas of insufficiently combating drug smuggling. According to The New York Times, Trump has authorized the CIA to conduct covert operations in the republic. American media have repeatedly reported that the US may soon begin striking drug cartel targets in Venezuela.