“It has been very bad,” said the president of the United States, Donald Trump, in his first public statements after informing on Tuesday that the forces of his country had attacked a boat from Venezuela, in which they considered that drugs were transported to the United States, and killed their 11 occupants in international waters in the Caribbean. In an appearance in the Oval Office with the Polish President, Karol Nawrocki, Trump has with the argument that Washington has recordings of people’s conversations on board that show that they were drug traffickers, while the Pentagon has warned that this type of attacks.
“You have massive amounts of drugs. We have recordings of them speaking. They were massive amounts of drugs that were going to enter our country to kill a lot of people, and everyone understands that. In fact, the bundles and drugs are seen throughout the ship. They will no longer do it,” said the US president regarding an operation on which they still exist: from their legality to why it was not chosen, simply intercept, simply intercept, simply intercept for, simply intercept, simply intercept, simply intercept for, simply intercept, simply intercept, simply intercept, simply inter. through what type of exactly illegal substances the United States that were transported in the cargo. Issues that Trump has not addressed in his comments.
The attack is the first known including three destroyers, with more than 4,000 soldiers on board in international waters in southern Caribbean in the vicinity of the territorial waters of Venezuela. The argument used is the fight against drug trafficking. From his return to the White House, Trump has exponentially increased pressure on the president of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro; A pressure that is increasingly focused on relating the Chavista leader with drug trafficking.
Trump has reiterated that the attack, recorded in a video that the president himself has distributed on his social networks, represents a warning to drug traffickers who may be tempted to introduce drugs in the United States: “I think many people will no longer do it. When they watch that video, they will say: ‘We do not do it.’ We have to protect our country.”
But it is also a warning for the Venezuelan government. “Venezuela has been a bad agent. They have sent millions of people to this country. Many belong to [la banda delictiva] Aragua Train, some of the worst criminal gangs in the world … Venezuela has been very bad, both in terms of drugs and by sending us some of the worst criminals in the world. ”
In the same Trump line, the Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, of official visit in Mexico, pronounced, Sara Spain reports. “If you go on a ship to the United States loaded with drugs, you expose yourself to be attacked,” he settled. Rubio, one of the strong men of the Trump government and the main face in foreign policy, stressed that the US president had the opportunity to use force to “eliminate a direct threat” to the security of his country “and is willing to do it again.”
“It can happen again; tomorrow or in a week,” warned the Secretary of State, who was emphatic in qualifying as “narco -terrorist” the groups that use the maritime routes that go to their country and that, until now, they have managed to operate with some impunity assuming only that they will lose “1% or 2%” of their drug shipments. “They are not simply people who comment on some crime, they are organizations, they are a direct threat” to the national security of their country, and also to the stability of Latin America, he said in a joint press conference with the Mexican Foreign Minister, Juan Ramón de la Fuente. The head of Foreign Affairs of the Government of Claudia Sheinbaum slipped from Rubio very diplomatly and pointed out that Mexico is a country of peace, which establishes relations with all countries that want relations with them. “We believe in self -determination, in non -intervention. These principles govern our foreign policy.”
Shortly before Trump and Rubio, the Secretary of Defense of the United States, Pete Heghseth, had warned that military operations against drug cartels will continue. The words of the Pentagon head prepare the stage for a military campaign sustained in Latin America against drug trafficking.
“We have resources in the air, resources in the water, resources in ships, because this is a very serious mission for us, and will not stop only with this attack,” said Hegseth in statements to the Fox News television network. “Any other person who will traffic in those waters and that we know that it is a designated narcoterrorist will run the same fate,” he said.
As the president, the Secretary of Defense has not contributed details on how the operation was carried out and has shielded that it is classified information. The video shows how the boat moves through the water and explodes in flames at the time of being reached. But it is unknown if the ship was destroyed by a drone, a torpedo or some other way. Hegesh has not clarified why he chose to kill the occupants of the boat, nor has he contributed details about who were on board.
The fact that the Trump administration has aroused the alarm in Caracas that its government could be the real objective. Last month, the United States doubled the reward for information that led to the arrest of the Venezuelan leader up to 50 million dollars, accusing it of ties with drug trafficking and criminal groups.
Venezuelan officials have repeatedly said that Aragua Train is no longer active in their country after they dismantled him during a raid in a prison in 2023.
Venezuela’s Minister of Communications, Freddy Ñáñez, suggested in a publication on social networks that the video Trump shared was created with artificial intelligence.
