The U.S. military killed four men aboard a boat in international waters near Venezuela on Friday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced in a social media post. He accused the dead people of having been smuggling narcotics, without offering evidence.
The strike was the fourth known attack by the U.S. military since Sept. 2 on boats in the Caribbean Sea that the Trump administration has claimed were smuggling drugs for gangs or cartels it has deemed to be terrorist groups. In all, the military has killed 21 people.
“Our intelligence, without a doubt, confirmed that this vessel was trafficking narcotics, the people onboard were narco-terrorists, and they were operating on a known narco-trafficking transit route,” Mr. Hegseth wrote. “These strikes will continue until the attacks on the American people are over!!!!”
As with the Trump administration’s previous announcements of such strikes last month, Mr. Hegseth posted a brief aerial surveillance video showing a go-fast-style boat moving across the surface of the sea and then blowing up. He said he had directed the strike on President Trump’s orders.
There were few other details. Mr. Hegseth said the attack took place “just off the coast of Venezuela” but in international waters. He described the boat as a “narco-trafficking vessel” that was “affiliated” with an organization the administration had deemed terrorists, but did not name any group or identify the nationalities of the dead.
It is illegal for the military to deliberately kill civilians — even suspected criminals — who are not directly participating in hostilities. The Trump administration told Congress this week that Mr. Trump had “determined” that the United States was engaged in an armed conflict with the cartels his administration had designated as terrorist groups, and that people crewing vessels suspected of smuggling drugs for such groups were “unlawful combatants,” not civilians.
The legitimacy of the idea that Mr. Trump can treat trafficking a dangerous product as the kind of hostility or armed attack that can trigger a state of armed conflict — and with it, a right to use lethal military force without running afoul of murder laws — has been sharply contested by a range of legal specialists in laws governing the use of force.
Those critics include retired judge advocate general officers who formerly advised the military on when it could use force. Notably, Mr. Hegseth has expressed loathing for so-called JAG lawyers and fired the top ones in February after he was confirmed.
Mr. Trump has been using the military in norm-busting ways, including sending troops under federal control into the streets of cities like Los Angeles and Washington and saying he will expand that to Chicago, Portland and Memphis. This week, Mr. Hegseth forced top U.S. military officers from around the world to travel to watch him and Mr. Trump give speeches, and the president suggested using troops in American cities as “training grounds” for future wars.
Mr. Trump’s and Mr. Hegseth’s use of the military to summarily kill suspected drug smugglers in the Caribbean Sea is another example. The U.S. Coast Guard, assisted by the Navy, has long dealt with drug trafficking by interdicting boats and, if suspicions of smuggling proved accurate, seizing their cargo and arresting their crews for prosecution.
But in late July, Mr. Trump signed a still-secret order directing the Pentagon to start using military force against Latin American criminal groups his administration has labeled terrorists. Since August, the U.S. military has built up naval forces in the south Caribbean Sea.
On Sept. 2, in the first use of that authority, Special Operations forces attacked a boat that Mr. Trump said was smuggling drugs and carrying 11 members of Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan gang his administration has called a terrorist group. In a report to Congress, Mr. Trump justified the strike as a matter of self-defense against drug traffickers.
There are lingering questions about what happened with that strike. It is not clear why so many people were aboard, raising suspicions that some may have been migrants rather than crew members. People briefed on a lengthier video of the operation than the one the administration released say that the boat had turned around before the U.S. military struck, apparently spooked by an aircraft, and that it was hit repeatedly before it sank.
A second boat strike, on Sept. 15, killed three Venezuelans, Mr. Trump has said, without specifying a group. In his letter to Congress declaring that the United States is now in a “noninternational armed conflict” with drug cartels designated as terrorist organizations, he also called the three people killed in that strike “unlawful combatants.”
A third, on Sept. 19, also killed three people, Mr. Trump said, this time without specifying a nationality or group.
The military has developed a proposal to potentially extend the campaign into strikes inside Venezuelan territory, according to current and former officials, but it is not clear whether Mr. Trump has made a decision about that. In addition, several of his top aides have been pushing to use military force to remove Venezuela’s president, Nicolás Maduro.
Mr. Maduro was indicted by the U.S. Justice Department on drug trafficking and corruption charges in Mr. Trump’s first term, and the United States under presidents of both parties has accused him of stealing the 2024 presidential election in Venezuela. The Trump administration has called him illegitimate and doubled a reward for his capture.
Charlie Savage writes about national security and legal policy for The Times.
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