President Donald Trump said the US military targeted a boat carrying drugs from Venezuela, touting the administration’s success after deploying naval vessels to the Caribbean as part of a push to stop narco-trafficking.
The claim came weeks after Washington deployed warships and thousands of troops to the Caribbean to disrupt drug routes from Latin America. Trump’s remarks signal an escalation of pressure on Nicolás Maduro’s government, which has accused the US of planning aggression.
“We just over the last few minutes, literally, shot out a boat, a drug-carrying boat, a lot of drugs in that boat,” Trump told reporters Tuesday in the Oval Office. “These came out of Venezuela — and coming out very heavily from Venezuela. A lot of things are coming out of Venezuela. So we took it out, and you’ll get to see that after this meeting is over.”
After Trump spoke, the Pentagon said a “precision strike” was carried out “against a drug vessel operated by a designated narco-terrorist organization,” adding that more information would be forthcoming. Secretary of State Marco Rubio made similar comments on social media.
Venezuela’s defaulted dollar bonds touched session highs following the news, with notes maturing in 2031 jumping more than a cent to trade above 23 cents on the dollar, their highest levels since February 2019, according to indicative pricing data compiled by Bloomberg.
Venezuela’s information ministry didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Last month the Defense Department announced it was sending more than 4,000 sailors and Marines to the seas around Latin America as part of Trump’s stepped-up push against drug cartels. On Monday, Maduro accused Rubio of trying to push the US into a massacre with the deployment.
“Marco Rubio wants to stain his hands with blood, with South American, Caribbean, and Venezuelan blood,” Maduro said on Monday, addressing his response to Trump. “Even if they put 10,000 missiles on our heads, Venezuelans will be respected.”
The strike is likely to further inflame tensions with the Maduro regime, which has responded to the US buildup with its own deployments, sending troops and vessels to Venezuela’s borders and key oil hubs. US officials say they’re targeting the Cartel de los Soles, a network they claim is run by Venezuelan officers with Maduro’s backing.
The Pentagon has sent the Iwo Jima Amphibious Ready Group and the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit, forces capable of striking land targets, a sharper posture than the Coast Guard cutters usually used against drug shipments.
The buildup, the largest in the region since the 1989 invasion of Panama, has split Latin America. Brazil’s Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Colombia’s Gustavo Petro criticized the move as destabilizing, while Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago backed it, citing drug-trafficking concerns. China, Russia and Iran condemned it as interference.
Trump has labeled Maduro a terrorist and earlier this year offered a $50 million reward for his capture. During his first term, he imposed sweeping sanctions, recognized opposition leader Juan Guaidó as Venezuela’s interim president and pressed for Maduro’s ouster.
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US military, drug trafficking, Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, Trump administration
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