An extremely delicate moment. Eleven people have died in an attack perpetrated by US ships against a boat that had sailed from Venezuela and that the US government accuses of transporting a drug cargo, as the US president, Donald Trump, has revealed in his social networks. It is the most serious incident so far in the return to the White House of the Republican, who accuses the president to the North American country.
Trump had warned that the operation had occurred shortly before, while participating in an act in the Oval Office. He had not contributed details, but he had advanced that immediately there would be more available data. His secretary of state, Marco Rubio, confirmed the operation in a message on social networks.
“This morning, by my orders, the US armed forces have carried out a direct attack against people identified with certainty as a narcoterrorist of the Aragua train, in the area of responsibility of the South Command,” said the US president in his social network, Truth.
According to Trump, “Train of Aragua is a foreign terrorist organization, which operates under the control of (Venezuelan president) Nicolás Maduro, responsible for mass murders, drug trafficking and people, and acts of violence and terrorism in the United States and the Western hemisphere.”
The attack occurred, points the president, in international waters, when the ship transported “illegal narcotics and headed to the United States.”
“The attack resulted in eleven terrorists dead in the operation. No American soldier was injured in this attack,” says Trump, which concludes: “That this serves as a warning to anyone who is thinking even if it is from afar the possibility of putting drugs in the United States. Be careful!”
In the Oval Office, Trump had indicated that he had just participated in an informative meeting with the Chief of the General Staff, General Dan Caine. “We just opened fire against a ship, a ship that transported drugs, a lot of drugs on that ship,” said the president in statements to the press.
“We have a lot of drugs entering our country, for a long time. And these came from Venezuela. There are many things that come to us from Venezuela,” said Trump, who has not contributed more details and has limited himself to indicating that “soon” more data on the operation would be announced, “once this meeting is over.” Trump spoke from the Oval Office, where he participated in an act to announce the transfer of the command for the cyberspace from Colorado to Alabama.
The president’s statements occurred when in international waters, in the limit of the territorial waters of Venezuela, a flotilla that includes three aegis destroyers of guided missile, in addition to submarines and airplanes, in what describes as an operation to fight drug trafficking.
The Secretary of State, has commented on the operation in a message on social networks. “The US armed forces have carried out a lethal attack today in the southern Caribbean against a drug trafficking ship that had sailed from Venezuela and was being managed by an organization designated as a narcoterrorist,” said the head of US diplomacy.
The three destroyers against Venezuelan waters are the USS Gravelyhe USS Jason Dunham and the USS Sampson. The Pentagon justifies its presence as part of Donald Trump’s administration plans to face the threats of drug cartels in Latin America. It also ensures that ships will continue in those waters for several months. The deployment includes P-8 espionage aircraft, armored and attack submarines, including amphibian ships USS San Antonio, USS IWO JIMA Y USS Fort Lauderdale.
Trump attributes to the posters in Latin America the flow of fentanil and other drugs that, according to him, destroy US communities and generate an increase in violence in some cities in the country. It also attributes to Maduro the leadership of the Los Soles cartel, a criminal network that links high Venezuelan positions with Colombian guerrillas groups and drug traffickers from Mexico. The White House announced on August 7 a reward of 50 million dollars (about 43 million euros) for information that allows Maduro’s arrest.
At the beginning of August, the Republican secretly signed a directive for the Pentagon who authorized the use of military force against Latin American drug cartels that the Administration has declared terrorist organizations, as revealed The New York Times.
White House spokeswoman, Karoline Leavitt, has recently stated that the United States is willing to use “all the elements of its power” to stop the drug input flow through its borders and “take those responsible to justice.”
In response to the American deployment, Venezuela has and has called to enlist militiamen and volunteers to repel a hypothetical foreign military operation. The president of the country, Nicolás Maduro, declared in a press conference with international media this Monday: and Republic in arms. ”
“Venezuela is facing the greatest threat that has been seen in our continent in 100 years,” said the head of state. “There are eight warships, with 1,200 missiles and a nuclear submarine that points to Venezuela. It is an extravagant, immoral and bloody threat. They have wanted to advance to maximum military pressure, and we have declared the maximum preparation in Venezuela.”
Maduro denied any criminal bond. “If you are looking for a gangster, they look elsewhere,” he said Monday. “If Venezuela is attacked, we will declare ourselves in armed struggle,” he warned at his press conference on Monday.
