Four killed in the last American strike on an alleged drug ship near Venezuela

The American forces killed four people in an attack on a boat off the coast of Venezuela, which has tracked drugs, said defense secretary Pete Hegseth.

“The strike was carried out in international waters right next to the coasts of Venezuela while the ship carried substantial amounts of narcotics – went to America to poison our people,” Hegseth wrote in an article on X.

It is the last in a number of recent deadly strikes that the United States has carried out on boats in international waters which, according to them, are involved in “narco-vasting”.

Strikes have attracted condemnation in countries like Venezuela and Colombia, some international lawyers describing strikes as a violation of international law.

Hegseth said that the attack took place in the Southern Command responsibility area, which covers most of South and Caribbean America.

“Our intelligence, without a doubt, confirmed that this ship trafficked with narcotics, people on board were narco-terrorists, and they operated on a known narco-traying transit road,” Hegseth said about Friday’s attack.

“These strikes will continue until the attacks on the American people are finished !!!!”

President Trump also confirmed the strike of his social platform Truth, saying that the boat was carrying enough drugs “to kill 25 to 50,000 people”.

However, the United States has not provided proof of its complaints or any information on the identity of those on board.

There was no immediate response from Venezuela, but its president, Nicolás Maduro, previously condemned strikes and said that his country would defend itself against us “attack”.

Friday’s deadly attack is the fourth by the United States in a month.

Trump said 11 people had been killed during a strike against a ship -carrying ship in the South of the Caribbean in early September.

Later in the month, two separate strikes for several days killed a total of six people.

This Thursday, a Memo disclosed sent to the Congress – reported by the American media – said that the US government had now decided that it was a “non -international armed conflict” with drug cartels.

This is significant because the administration is held by law to present itself to the congress if it will use the armed forces, which suggests that it provides for use an additional military action.

The United States has positioned its strikes on alleged drug boats such as self-defense, despite many lawyers who question their legality.

Framing this as an active armed conflict is probably a way for Trump to justify the use of more extreme powers in wartime – for example, killing “enemy fighters” even if they have not been a violent threat or hold people indefinitely. These are powers similar to those applied to Al-Qaeda after September 11.

Trump did not provide reasoning to explain why he seems to categorize drug trafficking and associated crimes as an “armed attack”, or named the cartels he believes to attack the United States.

He has already designed many cartels, notably in Mexico, Ecuador and Venezuela, as terrorist organizations – granting the American authorities more powers in their response.