The United States will soon begin strikes on ground targets as part of its fight against drug cartels in Latin America.
This was announced by US President Donald Trump during a meeting with reporters at the White House.
Trump reiterated his belief that strikes on boats suspected of transporting drugs are appropriate. “Very soon we will be doing the same on land, because we know all the routes, all the buildings. We know where these things are made. We know where they are assembled. And I think you'll see the same thing on the ground very soon," the US president said.
The United States will release all available material on the actions of US troops who, according to media reports, intentionally killed survivors of a boat attack in the Caribbean in September.
This was stated by US President Donald Trump while answering questions from reporters at the White House.
"I don't know what they have, but we're going to make everything we have public, no problem with that," he said. Trump gave this answer to a journalist's question whether the US administration was ready to release video footage of the second attack on the aforementioned boat.
The Washington Post newspaper earlier reported that in early September, Pentagon Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered "no one to be left alive" during a U.S. strike on a boat in the southern Caribbean. The boat in question, the Americans said, was transporting drugs from Venezuela. According to the newspaper, the U.S. military carried out two strikes on September 2. The first was to destroy the boat, which was carrying 11 people, allegedly members of the transnational criminal group Tren de Aragua. The second strike was carried out to kill two survivors who were in the water, clinging to the wreckage of the boat.
Trump was asked if he supported the decision to strike the boat again to finish off the survivors. “No, I support the decision to destroy the boats,“ he replied. Trump also expressed confidence that the people operating such boats are “guilty of attempted murder“ of Americans, as they are believed to have been transporting drugs to the United States.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said on December 1 that the Pentagon should release available video footage to clarify the circumstances under which the boat was hit.
The White House has previously said that it considers the actions of the US military to be legal. As White House Press Secretary Caroline Leavitt emphasized, the Trump administration believes that members of “narco-terrorist groups must be destroyed”. Washington has classified a number of drug cartels operating in Latin American countries, including the Tren de Aragua, as such groups.
As The New York Times reported in August, Trump signed a classified directive to begin using military force against Latin American drug cartels. Significant additional US military forces have since been deployed to the Caribbean, and Washington has launched airstrikes against boats that the US government says are transporting drugs across the Caribbean and eastern Pacific Oceans to the US.
According to CNN, US forces have destroyed more than 20 boats off the coast of Latin America in recent months under the pretext of combating drug smuggling, killing more than 80 people. After one of these strikes, Colombian President Gustavo Petro said that the US operation had killed a fisherman from his country, not a drug dealer.
Washington accuses Caracas of failing to adequately combat drug smuggling. According to The New York Times, Trump has authorized the CIA to conduct covert operations in Venezuela. American media have repeatedly reported that the United States may soon begin striking drug cartel targets in the country.