US sinks another drug ship; Venezuela criticizes undeclared war

The Trump administration announced that the US military sank another Venezuelan drug ship in the Caribbean Sea on the 20th, marking the fourth vessel destroyed since the start of the US military operation.

According to The Miami Herald, President Trump posted on his Truth Social social media account on the 20th, “On my orders, the Secretary of War has ordered a lethal strike on a vessel belonging to a designated terrorist organization.” The post stated that three men on board were killed, but no US military casualties occurred.

Trump did not specify the specific location of the attack, the names of the suspected terrorist organizations involved, or which military branch carried out the operation, saying only that “the vessel was engaged in drug trafficking within the U.S. Southern Command area of ​​responsibility.” U.S. Southern Command is the U.S. military’s top interservice joint combatant command covering 31 countries in South America, Central America, and the Caribbean.

Trump said intelligence confirmed that the vessel was following a known smuggling route and attempting to transport drugs into the United States.

He described the attack as part of a broader crackdown on drug trafficking and pledged to hold foreign powers accountable for threatening American communities.

The US military has carried out two consecutive days of attacks. On the 19th, Southern Command launched an airstrike on a drug-carrying ship, killing three people. Including an operation on the 20th, the US military sank four ships, killing 20 people.

However, Trump’s actions have drawn skepticism from legal scholars and human rights advocates, who warn that these attacks may constitute serious violations of international law. Unless the targets are civilians, the use of military force outside of war zones is strictly restricted under international and US law. Killing civilians, regardless of whether they are suspected of committing a crime, may constitute a war crime.

On the 19th, Venezuelan Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino Lopez, while inspecting military exercises conducted in response to US military threats, said, “This is an undeclared war.” Regardless of whether the victims were drug traffickers, they were executed in the Caribbean Sea and given no opportunity to defend themselves.

Under the US Constitution, the power to declare war rests with Congress, and the president, as commander-in-chief, can launch overseas military operations without congressional authorization. But Human Rights Watch, an international non-governmental organization, believes that these attacks on suspected “drug transport ships” are “illegal killings without legal authorization.”