The United States attacks a new boat in the Caribbean | International

The United States has attacked a new alleged drug boat in international waters of the Caribbean this Saturday, as announced by the Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, in a message on the social network

As usual, Hegseth has not provided specific information about the identity of the travelers, the type of drugs they were supposedly transporting or the specific organization that, according to the United States, controlled the boat.

It is only limited to ensuring that the alleged drug boat was operated by an “organization designated as terrorist.” On the State Department list, Washington included the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua in February, in addition to six Mexican cartels: those of Sinaloa, Jalisco Nueva Generación, del Noroeste and del Golfo, as well as La Nueva Familia Michoacana and the United Carteles.

“Our intelligence services knew that this vessel – like ALL THE OTHERS – was involved in illegal drug smuggling, was traveling along a known drug trafficking route and was transporting narcotics,” Hegseth points out, imitating the characteristic use of capital letters by US President Donald Trump.

The Secretary of Defense accompanies his message on networks, as has also become customary, with a video in which he shows the moment the American projectile hits the boat and causes it to explode.

“Three male narcoterrorists were on board the ship during the attack, carried out in international waters. All three terrorists were killed, and no US forces were harmed in the attack,” continues the former presenter for the conservative television network Fox News.

The Secretary of Defense continues: “these narcoterrorists are transporting drugs to our shores to poison Americans at home – and they are not going to succeed.”

Hegseth insists on the equation between alleged drug traffickers and Islamist terrorist organizations. “The Department will treat them EXACTLY as we treat Al Qaeda. We will continue to search for them, locate them, hunt them and kill them,” he declares.

With this new attack, the US armed forces have carried out 16 extrajudicial attacks against alleged drug traffickers since September 2. There are only three known survivors: a Colombian and an Ecuadorian who were extradited to their respective countries, plus another person whose details are unknown and who survived an attack in the Pacific last Wednesday.

Trump and his Administration justify the attacks as essential to fight against drug cartels, with which they consider that the United States is in “armed conflict.”

But the president of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, believes that behind the campaign lies a pressure strategy to force a regime change. The White House accuses him of being part of the leadership of the Suns cartel and the State Department has doubled the reward it offers for his capture to $50 million.

Trump has been pointing out for weeks that the campaign of attacks against drug boats will enter a “second phase” that would include actions on the ground, and has confirmed that he has authorized the CIA to carry out missions in Venezuela. The American president also affirms that Venezuela “is feeling the pressure.”

The United States maintains an unprecedented military deployment in international waters off the coast of Venezuela. A dozen warships, including a nuclear submarine, and 10,000 soldiers are in the area, and in the coming days the largest and most modern aircraft carrier in its fleet, the Gerald Ford to the Caribbean.

In addition to the drug trafficking gangs included in February, the two large umbrellas of the dissidents of the extinct Colombian FARC guerrilla have already been included in the list of foreign terrorist organizations since Joe Biden’s mandate: the so-called Central General Staff and the Second Marquetalia.

And since the list was created in 1997, the National Liberation Army or ELN has appeared, a guerrilla born in the mid-20th century and which today has such a significant presence in Venezuela – due to its good relations with Chavismo – that many analysts consider it binational. Hegseth had already attributed a previous attack to the ELN.