Washington.– The
United States Government assured this Wednesday that it will again militarily attack drug cartels, as it already did with the boat it destroyed this Tuesday in the waters of the
Caribbean Sea coming from
Venezuela, and justified that only by eliminating them will it manage to protect its country from the threat of drug trafficking, while the Pentagon insisted that this is only the beginning of a broader military operation.
“What will stop them is to blow them up and get rid of them”, assured Secretary of State Marco Rubio, a day after confirming the attack in the southern Caribbean Sea against a boat allegedly linked to the Tren de Aragua.
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Like other members of the Administration, Rubio defended the need to carry out that strike against the vessel because, among other things, it was heading to his country.
“The drug traffickers’ boat was heading towards the United States. And instead of intercepting it, by order of the president, action was taken,” said the head of US diplomacy during his trip to Mexico.
“He was heading to the U.S. to flood our country with poison,” he added.
For his part, Pentagon leader Pete Hegseth assured from Washington that Trump “is willing to go on the offensive in ways that others have not done before and thus send a clear signal to the Tren de Aragua, the Cartel of the Suns and others emanating from Venezuela”.
According to the explanation, the eleven alleged “narco-terrorists” who were on board the boat died in the projectile attack. However, their identities or the details of the cargo that the small boat was carrying have not yet been revealed, a type of transport that in the past has been intercepted and not attacked as a military target.
“(The drug traffickers) won’t do it again”
For his part, President Donald Trump expressed confidence in the message they had launched with the military coup and assured that this will stop the drug trafficking to his country.
“They won’t do it again. And I think many others won’t either (transport drugs). When they see that video, they’re going to say: ‘We better not do this,'” Trump assured in the Oval Office in reference to a video from the Southern Command of the US Army, shared by himself, in which the attack with projectiles against a barge is observed.
The leader explained that he has started this war against the cartels because he must “protect” his country: “We are not going to tolerate it anymore. Venezuela is one of the worst actors in the whole group.”
In addition, Trump accused Venezuela of having created a “tremendous problem” for Washington not only with drug trafficking but also due to irregular immigration and said that they “will not tolerate it anymore”.
The narrative against Venezuela, which featured in Trump’s anti-immigrant discourse during the 2024 election campaign, has been maintained as justification for using emergency laws to expel undocumented immigrants and now to deploy an imposing armada near the waters of the Andean country.
They “knew who was” on the attacked boat
In one of his first reactions, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro assured that the video shared by Trump had been created with artificial intelligence. The Pentagon leader insisted that the images are “definitely” real: “I saw it live. We knew exactly who was on that ship.”
Hegseth also repeated a premise for the Trump Administration that justifies military pressure: Maduro (for whom Washington offers a reward of 50 million dollars) “is acting in practice as the head of a narco-state”.
According to Trump, “there were enormous amounts of drugs on the ship.” “We have recordings of them talking. They were massive amounts of drugs coming into our country to kill a lot of people,” he added.
This was the first attack, but it may not be the last, that the U.S. is carrying out through the military force deployed near the coasts of Venezuela. This is composed of at least seven warships and several destroyers and amphibious assault ships, as well as a nuclear-powered submarine.
