The United States military began executing airstrikes on vessels in the Caribbean Sea in September 2025, positioned by the administration of Donald Trump as a mission to fight maritime drug trafficking in Latin America to the US. In October, the strikes expanded to include the Eastern Pacific Ocean. The Trump administration alleged that the vessels were operated by groups it designated as narcoterrorists, including the Venezuelan crime syndicate Tren de Aragua and the Colombian far-left guerilla group National Liberation Army, but has not publicized any evidence for the allegations.
| 2025 United States military strikes on alleged drug traffickers | |
|---|---|
| Part of Operation Southern Spear, 2025 United States naval deployment in the Caribbean, the war on terror and the war on cartels | |
Unclassified footage of the first airstrike (1 September) | |
| Type | Airstrikes |
| Locations | Caribbean Sea Pacific Ocean |
| Planned by | United States |
| Target | Vessels crewed by alleged drug traffickers |
| Date | 1 September 2025 – present |
| Executed by | United States Navy |
| Casualties | 104 killed (includes 1 missing and presumed dead) 2 captured and repatriated |
The US began deploying Navy warships and personnel to the Caribbean in mid-August. Trump announced on 2 September that the US Navy had carried out the first airstrike in the Caribbean on a boat from Venezuela, killing all eleven people on the vessel; he released a video of the incident, which Venezuelan sources said had occurred on 1 September. The next day, Pete Hegseth, the US Secretary of Defense, said military operations against drug cartels in Venezuela would continue and Marco Rubio, the US Secretary of State, suggested that similar strikes could follow. As of 18 December 2025, at least 104 people have been killed in at least 28 strikes on 29 vessels.
The strikes came amid tensions between the United States and Venezuela as Trump steadily increased pressure. Venezuelan opposition figures, Trump administration sources and independent political analysts have suggested that the US's true motive is to remove Maduro. Experts, human rights groups and international bodies said the killings were illegal under US and international law, and the Colombian and Venezuelan governments have accused the US of extrajudicial murder. As of 6 November, the Republican-controlled US Senate has twice rejected resolutions that would limit Trump's authority to continue military action against Venezuela or airstrikes against alleged drug vessels.
Background
During the Trump administration's second term, the US intensified its focus on drug cartels, characterizing the smugglers as terrorists. In August 2025, the US deployed warships and personnel to the Caribbean, citing the need to combat drug cartels. PBS News reported that Trump was utilizing the military to counter cartels he blamed for trafficking fentanyl and other illicit drugs into the US and for fueling violence in American cities.
Airstrikes on vessels
As of 18 December 2025, at least 104 people have been killed in 28 strikes on 29 vessels, including 11 vessels struck in the Caribbean Sea and 18 in the Eastern Pacific. The number killed includes one missing survivor who is presumed dead; two other people survived one of the attacks and were repatriated to their home countries.
Initial strike
The US announced on 2 September that a military vessel struck and sank a speedboat that it alleged was smuggling drugs from Venezuela to the southern Caribbean during a high-seas interdiction mission. El Pitazo and Venezuela's El Nacional stated that the boat was destroyed on Monday, 1 September. Trump announced the attack from the White House, describing the target as "loaded" with narcotics, a "lot of drugs" bound for the United States. In a post on Truth Social, Trump stated that the operation killed 11 members of Tren de Aragua. Secretary of State Marco Rubio confirmed the sinking on social media, stating the vessel was operated by a "designated narco-terrorist organization". On 6 September 2025, Rubio said: "Instead of interdicting it, on the president's orders, we blew it up. And it'll happen again." According to The Wall Street Journal, "The attack was the US military's first publicly acknowledged airstrike in Central or South America since the US invasion of Panama in 1989."
Venezuelan media reported that the vessel came from the village of San Juan de Unare, located on the Paria Peninsula in Sucre (a coastal state in the northeastern part of Venezuela). El Pitazo reported that the boat was a flipper type with four 200-horsepower engines, about 12 metres (39 ft) long, and was headed for nearby Trinidad and Tobago. Two other vessels which departed at about the same time escaped detection. US military veteran Luis Quiñonez stated in a television interview that three warnings (in English, Spanish and Portuguese) to stop were issued, and sources told journalist Sebastiana Barráez that the vessel carried a "considerable cargo" and that some had been thrown overboard before the US attack.
Originally a fishing village, San Juan de Unare had been for two decades taken over as a transit point in the drug trade, according to Ronna Rísquez. France 24, quoting local media, reported that since 2018 the town has been a "strategic hub for drug trafficking, human trafficking, and irregular migration", and that Tren de Aragua ran drugs ultimately destined for the US from the Sucre coast via Caribbean islands. According to Efecto Cocuyo, Sucre state's short distance from Trinidad "facilitates the proliferation of these illicit activities, a fact that has been widely documented by various organizations ... in multiple investigations". An anonymous expert on organized crime told Efecto Cocuyo that drugs trafficked through the region originate in Colombia, and that gangs such as Tren de Aragua are "attempting to control these territories to establish direct transportation routes to the islands of the Eastern Caribbean". A 1 October Insight Crime report stated that Tren de Aragua "maintains a stronghold" in Sucre state, but the Venezuelan state has "real control" of "criminal economies" there.
Trump posted footage of the attack on Truth Social, showing a missile striking the boat and setting it on fire. A US spokesperson later confirmed that either a military helicopter or an MQ-9 Reaper drone struck the boat. Rubio added that the boat appeared to be heading for Trinidad or another Caribbean country.
Survivors and follow-up strike
The New York Times and Associated Press reported that national security sources acknowledged that the boat seemed to be turning back when it was hit.
In November 2025, The Washington Post reported that two anonymous sources said Hegseth had given a verbal order to SEAL Team Six to leave no survivors; two men who survived the initial strike were killed in a subsequent double tap strike. Sean Parnell, a public affairs spokesperson for the Pentagon, stated: "This entire narrative is completely false." Hegseth responded on social media that "the fake news is delivering more fabricated, inflammatory, and derogatory reporting to discredit our incredible warriors fighting to protect the homeland". CNN stated that "Hegseth had ordered the military prior to the operation to ensure the strike killed everyone on board, but it's not clear if he knew there were survivors prior to the second strike, one of the sources said." Five US officials speaking anonymously to The New York Times outlined the same chronology of the attack unfolding: they said Hegseth ordered a lethal strike ahead of the actual attack, but did not give orders about what to do if the lethal strike failed, and did not give the order after seeing footage showing survivors. US Navy Admiral Frank M. "Mitch" Bradley, the commander who directed the strike, stated in closed briefings to US legislators on 4 December that there was no order to "kill them all" or "grant no quarter", according to Jim Himes, a Democrat member of the armed services committee and others familiar with the briefings. According to anonymous sources reported by CNN, Bradley said the struck vessel was going to meet another boat which was bound for Suriname.
Karoline Leavitt, press secretary for the Trump administration, confirmed on 1 December that the second strike had occurred. She "rejected" that Hegseth gave orders to "kill everybody", but added, "the president has made it quite clear that if narcoterrorists are trafficking illegal drugs towards the United States, he has the authority to kill them". Leavitt stated that "... Secretary Hegseth authorized Admiral Bradley to conduct these kinetic strikes. Admiral Bradley worked well within his authority and the law, directing the engagement to ensure the boat was destroyed and the threat to the United Sates of America was eliminated." According to The Guardian, the administration "argu[es] that its objective was to ensure the complete destruction of the boat". Bradley was promoted after the strike.
The Washington Post also reported that intelligence analysts observing the boat via surveillance aircraft were increasingly confident that it was carrying drugs, and that "protocols were changed after the strike", providing for rescue of survivors, according to anonymous sources.
Subsequent strikes on alleged Venezuelan boats
On 15 September, Trump announced in a Truth Social post that the US military launched a second strike into a boat transporting illicit drugs from Venezuela during the morning hours, killing three men aboard the vessel. Following the second attack, Trump released a threat on social media towards drug traffickers, replying in all capital letters: "Be warned—If you are transporting drugs that can kill Americans, we are hunting you!" Trump stated on 16 September that the US military had sunk a third alleged drug-running boat in the Caribbean, without providing any other detail. Later, on 8 October, Colombian President Gustavo Petro stated that those killed in one of the strikes may have been Colombian. The White House responded that these assertions were baseless. Two US officials stated without approval to publicly discuss the matter that there were Colombians on at least one of the boats. On 18 October, Petro stated that the 16 September strike announced by Trump had killed a Colombian fisherman. Other sources said he was referring to the 15 September strike.
On 3 October, Hegseth announced that a strike on a vessel near the coast of Venezuela killed four. Hegseth wrote in an X post that the vessel was transporting substantial amounts of narcotics and at the time was heading towards the United States, adding that the vessel was operating on a known narco-trafficking transit route.
On 14 October, Trump posted a statement on Truth Social that six more men were killed in a strike on a vessel near the coast of Venezuela. Trump stated that Hegseth ordered the strike that morning. Trinidad and Tobago is investigating whether two of the killed were Trinidad citizens.
On 24 October, Hegseth announced "the first strike at night" occurred, against an alleged drug vessel operated by Tren de Aragua in the Caribbean, killing six men on board.
Other Caribbean strikes
On 19 September, Trump announced that another vessel allegedly carrying drugs had been destroyed in the Caribbean and that three men had been killed; Trump stated that the vessel was "affiliated with a Designated Terrorist Organization conducting narcotrafficking in the USSOUTHCOM area of responsibility", but did not specify where within the United States Southern Command the strike occurred, the country of origin, or the alleged criminal affiliation. The Dominican Republic later announced that, under its National Directorate for Drug Control and the Dominican Navy, it had cooperated with the US Navy to locate the boat, which was about 80 nautical miles (130 km) south of Dominican-controlled Beata Island. After the boat was destroyed the Dominican Navy salvaged 377 packages of cocaine amounting to 1,000 kilograms (2,200 lb). The Directorate stated that "This is the first time in history that the United States and the Dominican Republic carry out a joint operation against narco terrorism in the Caribbean".
Reuters reported that there was a previously unannounced strike on 16 October 2025, which included survivors. The US alleged that the vessel struck was a narco-submarine. Two people were killed and two survived. The survivors were rescued and detained on a US Navy ship. By 19 October, both were repatriated to their respective countries of origin, Colombia and Ecuador.
On 17 October, a strike in international waters on an alleged Colombian National Liberation Army (ELN) drug vessel killed an additional three men. The ELN denied involvement with the alleged drug boat or any other drug boat trafficking.
On 1 November, a strike "at the direction of President Trump" according to Hegseth, killing three took place on what the US claimed was a designated terrorist organization, though the organization's name was not given. Hours after the US Senate voted down a resolution that would have required congressional approval for further strikes, a 6 November strike in the Caribbean killed three.
A strike on 10 November in the Caribbean killed four.
Pacific strikes
The US struck another alleged drug boat on 21 October, killing at least two individuals, marking the first strike to take place in the Pacific Ocean. An unnamed US official said the strike occurred off the Colombian coast. A second strike in the Pacific on 22 October killed three.
Three more strikes on four alleged drug boats in the Pacific—the first instance of multiple boats struck in one day—killed 14 people on 27 October. There was one survivor, seen clinging to debris after the strike. The Mexican Navy (SEMAR) coordinated search and rescue after the US reported the location to aircraft in the area from Mexico, and the US Coast Guard. On 31 October, Mexican officials said that after its mandatory, typical 96-hour search had yielded no survivor, it would stop searching.
On 29 October, a strike on an alleged drug boat in the eastern Pacific Ocean killed four men, followed by a 4 November strike that killed two alleged drug traffickers. Two boats were struck on 9 November, each killing three alleged traffickers.
In the first strike after the unveiling of Operation Southern Spear, the US Southern Command announced in a post to X that the Southern Spear joint task force had conducted a 15 November strike that killed three; a strike on 4 December killed four, and three strikes on three vessels that killed eight were announced on 15 December. A strike on 17 December killed four, and two strikes on two vessels on 18 December killed five.
Summary of strikes
| No. | Date | Location | No. vessels | Killed | Captured | Missing/ Presumed dead | Source and notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1–2 September 2025 | Caribbean – Venezuela | 1 | 11 | Most sources list as 2 September, the day Trump announced the strike; Venezuelan sources state the vessel was struck the day before it was announced. Three months later, subsequent strikes that killed two survivors were revealed. | ||
| 2 | 15 September 2025 | Caribbean – Venezuela | 1 | 3 | Gustavo Petro alleges one casualty was a Colombian fisherman | ||
| 3 | 19 September 2025 | Caribbean | 1 | 3 | Dominican Republic recovers cocaine | ||
| 4 | 3 October 2025 | Caribbean – Venezuela | 1 | 4 | First strike after notification of "armed conflict" | ||
| 5 | 14 October 2025 | Caribbean – Venezuela | 1 | 6 | Family says one missing was from Trinidad and Tobago | ||
| 6 | 16 October 2025 | Caribbean | 1 | 2 | 2 | Two survivors repatriated to Colombia and Ecuador | |
| 7 | 17 October 2025 | Caribbean | 1 | 3 | Allegedly affiliated with Colombian ELN | ||
| 8 | 21 October 2025 | Pacific | 1 | 2 | First strike in Eastern Pacific, allegedly off Colombian coast | ||
| 9 | 22 October 2025 | Pacific | 1 | 3 | |||
| 10 | 24 October 2025 | Caribbean – Venezuela | 1 | 6 | |||
| 11–13 | 27 October 2025 | Pacific | 4 | 14 | 1 | Three strikes on four vessels leave one survivor, presumed dead | |
| 14 | 29 October 2025 | Pacific | 1 | 4 | |||
| 15 | 1 November 2025 | Caribbean | 1 | 3 | |||
| 16 | 4 November 2025 | Pacific | 1 | 2 | |||
| 17 | 6 November 2025 | Caribbean | 1 | 3 | |||
| 18–19 | 9 November 2025 | Pacific | 2 | 6 | Two vessels, three killed on each | ||
| 20 | 10 November 2025 | Caribbean | 1 | 4 | |||
| 21 | 15 November 2025 | Pacific | 1 | 3 | First strike after formal unveiling of Operation Southern Spear | ||
| 22 | 4 December 2025 | Pacific | 1 | 4 | |||
| 23–25 | 15 December 2025 | Pacific | 3 | 8 | |||
| 26 | 17 December 2025 | Pacific | 1 | 4 | |||
| 27–28 | 18 December 2025 | Pacific | 2 | 5 |
Armed conflict declaration and escalation
Trump formally notified the United States Congress on 1 October 2025 that the US was in a "non-international armed conflict" with "unlawful combatants" regarding drug cartels in the Caribbean, specifically referencing the 15 September strike. The Miami Herald wrote that: "In an armed conflict, a country can lawfully kill enemy fighters even when they pose no threat."
Initially positioned as a mission to stop narcotics traffic to the US, by mid-October, Venezuelan opposition figures and independent analysts confirmed a shift in US objectives toward regime change, with Trump acknowledging the possibility of strikes within Venezuelan territory.
On 16 October, Admiral Alvin Holsey, the commander of United States Southern Command, announced that he would retire at the end of the year, less than a year into what is normally a three-year placement, with anonymous sources reporting tension between Holsey and the Trump administration over Venezuela. Two unnamed officials told The Wall Street Journal that tension between Hegseth and Holsey began early during Trump's administration over military planning involving the Panama Canal, with Hegseth wanting to replace Holsey, but differences intensified when "Holsey was initially concerned about murky legal authority for the boat strike campaign" and "objected that parts of the operations fell outside his direct control". The sources stated that, after months of tension, there was a confrontational meeting in October, and Holsey's resignation was announced the same day.
On 13 November 2025, Hegseth announced the unveiling of Operation Southern Spear, led by Joint Task Force Southern Spear and using a fleet with robotics and autonomous systems to target Latin American drug trafficking.
Identification of land targets in Venezuela
The Wall Street Journal reported on 30 October 2025 that US officials said they had identified "targets that sit at the nexus of the drug gangs and the Maduro regime", including facilities such as ports and airstrips that the Venezuelan military allegedly uses for drug trafficking.
Casualties and survivors
The Trump administration alleges the vessels destroyed were operated by narcoterrorists or members of cartels or gangs. The Guardian stated on 6 November 2025 that "governments and families of those killed in the US strikes on alleged drug boats have said many of the dead were civilians—primarily fishers." Sean Parnell stated that Department of Defense intelligence "consistently ... confirm[ed] that the individuals involved in these drug operations were narco-terrorists, and we stand by that assessment". Names and surnames of individuals missing and suspected killed in the strikes have rarely been made public and information has been repressed by the Venezuelan government, or families have avoided speaking out of fear. Dozens of individuals killed have not been identified; as of 8 November, those identified publicly include two Colombians, one Ecuadorian, two men from Trinidad and Tobago, and nine Venezuelans.
Colombian President Gustavo Petro stated that one of the men killed in a strike in mid-September was a Colombian fisherman. His family stated Alejandro Andrés Carranza Medina, alias ‘Coroncoro’, was not trafficking drugs, but according to CBS News, "... media have reported that Carranza had a criminal record for stealing weapons in collusion with gangs". Colombia's El Tiempo reported that in 2015 he was "allegedly involved in the theft of 264 weapons from the Santa Marta Metropolitan Police"; El País stated that the alleged perpetrator "accepted the charges of conspiracy to commit a crime, embezzlement, falsification of public documents and aggravated theft". In early December 2025, Petro's personal lawyer filed a complaint with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) against Hegseth on behalf of Carranza's family.
According to CNN, the sister of the Ecuadorian survivor of the 16 October strike, repatriated to Ecuador, "claim[ed] to know nothing of her brother’s alleged involvement with drug trafficking and instead portrayed him as a desperate father trying to provide for his six kids". The Ecuadorian had been convicted and deported from the US in 2020 for drug smuggling. The Ecuadorian attorney general's office stated that no crime reports had been filed against him with their institution, so absent evidence for detaining him, the subject was released. The other survivor of the 16 October strike, repatriated to Colombia, was hospitalized upon arrival with moderate injuries, including a skull fracture. Petro and Armando Benedetti, Colombian Minister of the Interior, said at the time he was repatriated the survivor would be "prosecuted according to the law, because he is allegedly a criminal who was trafficking drugs". However, because the incident occurred in international waters, outside Colombian territory, he would only be prosecuted if he voluntarily spoke and incriminated himself. He was released on 6 November with no charges.
The families of two missing men from Trinidad and Tobago identified them publicly and suspected they were killed in the 14 October strike; one family says their relative was a fisherman who traveled often to Venezuela and deny he was involved in trafficking drugs. MSNBC wrote that one had a drug-related charge from 2018, and the other had been released in 2021 after a prison sentence for a 2009 murder.
In the Paria Peninsula of Sucre state in Venezuela, from which the first boat struck on 1 September allegedly originated, Venezuelan media reported the area was known for trafficking, although not necessarily by Tren de Aragua, and some family members stated that villagers had become involved in illicit activity out of economic necessity. Inhabitants describing a town in mourning published tributes containing photos of the deceased beginning early on 3 September. The deceased included eight persons from San Juan de Unare and three from a nearby town, Güiria. The New York Times reported that "Venezuelan security officials descended on San Juan de Unare, cut off the electricity and made clear that public pronouncements about the attacks were not welcome, according to four townspeople, including the niece of one of the victims." Associated Press journalist Regina Garcia Cano visited Sucre just after the first Venezuelan strike and interviewed dozens of individuals; she wrote of the "sources' very real fears of being punished—particularly by the Venezuelan government—for speaking to reporters". She gained information about nine individuals, including the names of four of those killed, and found that some of "the dead men had indeed been running drugs but were not narco-terrorists ... or leaders of a cartel or gang". People interviewed by Garcia Cano said most of those killed were first-time crew members, and that they "included a fisherman, a motorcycle taxi driver, laborers and two low-level career criminals ... One was a well-known local crime leader who had agreed to work for narcotics smugglers." One reportedly trafficked both drugs and humans.
Two unidentified bodies suspected by locals to be casualties from the 1 September strike washed up on the shores of Trinidad and Tobago, showing signs of having been blown up. People who knew him claimed one of the bodies was a Venezuelan, recognizable by his watch; the Associated Press report said "he had been jailed by Venezuelan authorities on human-trafficking charges after a boat he had operated capsized in December 2020" and people had described him as "a longtime local crime boss [who] made most of his living smuggling drugs and people across borders".
Analysis
US rationale
The Trump administration did not initially announce any specific legal authority for the first strike. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth declared, "We have the absolute and complete authority", citing "... the defense of the American people alone. 100,000 Americans were killed each year under the previous administration because of an open border and open drug traffic flow. That is an assault on the American people." Regarding the initial strike, the Trump administration did not provide evidence about the vessel's cargo, nor did it establish that the vessel's crew were threatening to attack. Trump was questioned on 5 September about the legality of the first strike, to which he responded: "We don't want drugs killing our people. I believe we lost 300,000 ... last year"—a number he repeated days later in an Oval Office meeting. Drug overdose deaths in the US in 2024 were about 80,000 according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, representing a 25 percent decline from the previous year deaths of 112,910. When speaking impromptu to reporters prior to boarding Air Force One on 14 September, Trump inflated that number to 300 million.
CNN states that "[a|llegations involving [Venezuela's] presidential palace in cocaine trafficking have existed for at least a decade." Former US Attorney General William Barr first accused Maduro of supporting drug trafficking in 2020, stating that 250 tons of cocaine are smuggled through Venezuela annually, facilitated by the government, although no evidence was presented. On 7 August, the Trump administration doubled an existing $50 million reward for information leading to the arrest of Maduro on the 2020 Justice Department charges.
UN analysis of global drug trafficking contradicts the broader Trump administration claims around narco-trafficking through Venezuela, as it shows that the majority of drugs trafficked to the United States are not produced in Venezuela or smuggled through the Caribbean. Drugs are instead typically produced in Colombia or Peru and transported along the Pacific coast. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime has not identified Venezuela as a cocaine-producing country. Independent analysts have found evidence of drug trafficking in Venezuela, including in its armed forces, and CNN states that "the reality is more complex" in regards to the US government's claims about Maduro's involvement: "while Caracas claims to be waging war on drugs, there is also evidence of direct involvement in drug trafficking from the highest levels of government." According to Insight Crime, a more accurate description is a "system of corruption wherein military and political officials profit" by using "their positions to protect traffickers from arrest and ensure that shipments pass through a territory", in which "Maduro and other high-ranking officials permit this kind of corruption to ensure the loyalty of lower ranks".
Legality of the strikes
Experts have questioned the legality of the strikes under US and international law. The US Coast Guard or other law enforcement agencies had been responsible for US drug interdiction efforts for decades prior to the strikes, and suspects were prosecuted as a criminal matter, but according to CNN, the DOJ argued before the strikes began "that the president is legally allowed to authorize lethal strikes against 24 cartels and criminal organizations in self-defense, because the groups pose an imminent threat to Americans".
Experts speaking to the BBC said that the 2 September strike was potentially illegal under international maritime and human rights law. Though the US is not a signatory to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, previous US policy had been to "act in a manner consistent with its provisions"; countries are not supposed to interfere with ships in international waters except in cases such as hot pursuit out of a country's territorial waters.
International law
Law professor Mary Ellen O'Connell said that the strike "violated fundamental principles of international law". Luke Moffett of Queen's University Belfast, also a law professor, stated that striking the ship without grounds of self-defense could be extrajudicial killing. In October, the Associated Press stated that the Trump administration is "treating alleged drug traffickers as unlawful combatants who must be met with military force". Regarding the 2 September strike, Geoffrey Corn, former senior adviser on the law of war to the US Army, said "I don't think there is any way to legitimately characterize a drug ship heading from Venezuela, arguably to Trinidad, as an actual or imminent armed attack against the United States, justifying this military response." George W. Bush administration legal figure John Yoo has also questioned the legality of the strikes arguing that “There has to be a line between crime and war.” Obama era legal figure Harold Hongju Koh said that the strikes were “lawless, dangerous and reckless”. Former chief White House ethics lawyer Richard Painter called the strikes a violation of international and federal law.
A group of UN human rights experts stated on 21 October 2025 that the use of lethal force in international waters without a proper legal basis constitutes "extrajudicial executions", and that covert or direct military action against another sovereign state would represent "an even graver breach of the UN Charter". On 31 October, Volker Türk, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said that the US "must halt" strikes on alleged drug boats to prevent "extrajudicial killing" and also called for an investigation into the strikes. A spokeswoman for Türk's office said Türk believed that "airstrikes by the United States of America on boats in the Caribbean and in the Pacific violate international human rights law." She added, in a statement that contradicts Trump's "armed conflict" declaration, that the strikes were taking place "outside the context" of armed conflict or active hostilities. Amnesty International USA described a strike as murder. Adam Isacson of the Washington Office on Latin America said the strike "[l]ooks like a massacre of civilians at sea". In an interview with Democracy Now!, Greg Grandin said that the strike was "bringing the logic of Gaza into the Caribbean, in terms of unaccountability, impunity and an expansive notion of national defense to justify what is, in effect, just extrajudicial killing."
A former ICC chief prosecutor, Luis Moreno Ocampo, told the BBC that the strikes would be considered under international law as crimes against humanity. Referring to premeditated killing outside of armed conflict as murder, he also said: "For me, it's very clear. A crime against humanity is a systematic attack against a civilian population, and there is no clarity why these people are not civilians, even [though] they could be criminals ... and it's clearly systematic, because President Trump says they have planned and they organised this, so that should be the charge."
A case was filed with the IACHR on behalf of the wife of a Colombian man allegedly killed in the 15 September strike by Colombian president Petro's personal lawyer, Dan Kovalik, accusing "the United States of violating the rights to life, equality before the law, recognition of legal personality, a fair trial, and due process", according to El País. In an 8 December interview with Democracy Now!, prosecutor Reed Brody called the strikes murder, distinguishing them from war crimes because they took place in the absence of a legitimate conflict. He compared the actions of the US to the actions for which Rodrigo Duterte is on trial at the International Criminal Court, saying both countries had endorsed the killing of suspected drug traffickers without trial.
Domestic law
BBC News argued that "Questions also remain as to whether Trump complied with the War Powers Resolution, which demands that the president 'in every possible instance shall consult with Congress before introducing United States Armed Forces into hostilities'". The US Department of Justice (DOJ) stated in November 2025 that the 60-day limit of the War Powers Resolution did not apply to the airstrikes, as they involved unmanned vehicles that did not endanger US armed forces, and on 6 November, the US Senate voted against a resolution that would have required congressional approval for further military action directed at Venezuela, following an October vote that failed to limit strikes in the Caribbean. California senator Adam Schiff and Virginia senator Tim Kaine sponsored a resolution to prevent the administration from launching further strikes without congressional approval, which failed in the Senate 51–48 on 8 October 2025.
The Atlantic and the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) suggested that Trump was relying on the authority given the president as commander in chief under Article II of the US Constitution. According to CSIS, critics say the president must notify Congress within 48 hours to gain authorization. An expert in US constitutional law from King's College London stated to the BBC that it is not clear if the strike would fall under the presidential powers granted by the anti-terrorist Authorization for Use of Military Force of 2001 (AUMF), but that the administration's use of the term "narco-terrorists" may hint at this being their legal justification. According to the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), for several decades AUMF "has substituted for a formal declaration of war", and was used in 2001 to authorize war against "nations, organizations, or persons [the president] determines planned, authorized, committed, or aided” the attacks of 11 September or "harbored such organizations or persons". CSIS states that this authorization has been "used as a controversial legal basis for US counterterrorism operations against the Taliban, al-Qaeda, and other organizations" and Joe Biden "did not seek congressional authorization for its frequent strikes against the Houthis in Yemen". Law professor Gabor Rona argued in a 2 October 2025 Lawfare article that, while he agreed with other analysts that the strikes were unlawful, they reflected a predictable overreach that followed the precedents established during the George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Joe Biden administrations following the 11 September attacks. Political scientist Peter Feaver noted that every presidential administration since Ronald Reagan's considered deploying military force in the war on drugs, but only the second Trump administration followed through.
Repatriating the survivors of the 16 October strike on a semi-submersible to their home countries for prosecution avoids a civilian court challenge to continued detention without evidence, and a military court challenge to the legal justification for treating prisoners as unlawful combatants if they were not engaged in armed conflict.
Survivors of initial strike
Regarding allegations about the 1 September double tap strike that killed survivors, Sarah Harrison, a former Pentagon legal adviser, told CNN that "They’re killing civilians in the first place, and then if you assume they’re combatants, it's also unlawful", stating that in the laws covering armed conflict, hors de combat (out of combat) individuals "no longer able to fight ... have to be treated humanely."
Experts questioned whether the survivors of the initial explosion could be lawfully targeted, with some describing the allegations about the follow-up strike as potentially constituting an extrajudicial killing. According to these assessments, the legality of the operation depended on whether U.S. forces reasonably believed the individuals remained combatants or posed a continuing threat at the time of the second strike. According to The Guardian, the Trump administration is following a memo from the Office of Legal Counsel that has been "fiercely criticized by outside legal experts" which "says it is permissible for the US to use lethal force against unflagged vessels carrying cocaine since the cartels use the proceeds to fund violence", and by "framing the strikes as specifically targeting the boat ... put the attack on the firmest legal ground".
Time magazine reported that experts said the killing of survivors, if true, could be considered murder and a war crime, and that Hegseth could be subject to criminal charges under the Uniform Code of Military Justice, or charged under the US War Crimes Act of 1996. US legislators expressed similar concerns, and bipartisan investigations were launched by the Senate and the House Armed Services Committees. On 17 December, the Senate passed the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2026 with a bipartisan amendment that, if passed by the House, would require Hegseth to provide unedited footage of the strikes and their authorizing orders to both committees or lose part of his travel budget.
Reactions
Venezuela
Early on 3 September, tributes containing photos, videos and names of the deceased began to appear on social media. There was no response from the Maduro administration for four hours after the strike was announced; Freddy Ñáñez, the Venezuelan communications minister, was the first Venezuelan official to address the strike. He stated that the footage of the attack was fake. Inhabitants of San Juan de Unare disagree with this version.
During his regular TV show on 3 September, Diosdado Cabello, Venezuela's Minister of Interior, Justice and Peace, characterized the strike as "fake news" "invented" by the US as a cover for regime change. In the TV segment, he called the killings extrajudicial murders. Cabello later said that Venezuelan investigations determined none of the 11 people killed were members of Tren de Aragua. A neighbor of one of the missing disagreed with this version.
The next day, on 4 September, Attorney General Tarek William Saab said the attack never occurred.
Maduro accused the US of threatening regime change with the strike and build up of naval forces in the area. He said there were no criminal connections to drug traffickers. Delcy Rodríguez, the vice president of Venezuela, asked on 8 September, "How can there be a drug cartel if there's no drugs here?"
In November 2025, Yván Gil, Venezuela's foreign minister, issued a statement saying that "Venezuela categorically, firmly, and absolutely rejects the new and ridiculous fabrication by the Secretary of the U.S. Department of State, Marco Rubio, which designates the non-existent Cartel of the Suns as a terrorist organization," saying it is "an infamous and vile lie to justify an illegitimate and illegal intervention against Venezuela, under the classic U.S. regime-change format."
United States
In an exchange on X, Vice President JD Vance stated, "Killing cartel members who poison our fellow citizens is the highest and best use of our military," to which writer Brian Krassenstein responded, "killing the citizens of another nation who are civilians without any due process is called a war crime"; Vance responded "I don't give a shit what you call it." Senator Rand Paul intervened in the argument, saying "What a despicable and thoughtless sentiment it is to glorify killing someone without a trial." Senator Bernie Moreno responded to Paul saying, "what's really despicable is defending foreign terrorist drug traffickers who are directly responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Americans in Kentucky and Ohio."
The initial strike was welcomed by Republican senators Lindsey Graham and Bernie Moreno, with Moreno saying that "Sinking [the] boat saved American lives." Senator Mark Warner said he was worried about putting American sailors "in harm's way by violating international law", and declared that neither he, a member of the Gang of Eight, nor the Senate Intelligence Committee were briefed ahead of the operation. A bipartisan briefing scheduled for 5 September was abruptly cancelled. Warner condemned the government's briefing procedures again on 29 October. When asked for comment in response, a White House spokesperson accused the Democratic Party of "running cover for foreign drug smugglers."
Puerto Rico governor Jennifer Gonzalez thanked the Trump administration on 9 September 2025 for the "fight against drug cartels in our hemisphere".
In an interview with Vanity Fair magazine, Susie Wiles, Trump's White House Chief of Staff, told journalist Chris Whipple that Trump would "keep on blowing boats up until Maduro cries uncle." Whipple himself believed the terminology spoke to the possibility of Trump wanting to see regime change, and Wiles described the Vanity Fair article as "a hit piece".
Other Latin American and Caribbean
Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago Kamla Persad-Bissessar praised the US attack and encouraged more operations against drug traffickers, saying: "The pain and suffering the cartels have inflicted on our nation is immense. I have no sympathy for traffickers; the US military should kill them all violently." Raising concerns that the bodies washing ashore won't be investigated, and placing Trinidad and Tobago at odds with other CARICOM members, she supports the strikes, saying: "I much prefer seeing drug and gun traffickers blown to pieces than seeing hundreds of our citizens murdered each year because of drug-fueled gang violence." The family of one of the Trinidad missing said due process was not given and accused Trump of "killing poor people".
Colombian president Gustavo Petro said that attacking the boat occupants in drug interdictions rather than capturing them amounted to murder. On 11 November, Petro announced he would suspend sharing of intelligence with the US while strikes on vessels continued; Efecto Cocuyo reported that Colombian Ministers of Defense and of the Interior stated on 13 November that Colombia would continue cooperating with the US.
When asked whose side he was on, Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said he was on the side of peace, favored negotiations, and that US forces in the Caribbean had become a source of tension. Addressing the United Nations General Assembly, Lula compared "using lethal force in situations that do not constitute armed conflict" to "executing people without trial."
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum stated in October: "We do not agree with these attacks, with the way they are being carried out." Mexico and the US agreed in November 2025 on a protocol whereby "Mexico's Navy will be responsible for intercepting these vessels in international waters near the country's coasts in order to prevent further bombings", according to El País.
Foreign Policy magazine described Latin America's reaction to the strikes as "disjointed" and fragmented in November 2025, "explained, in part, by ideological divisions across the region", with "left-wing leaders of Colombia, Mexico, and Brazil [as] the most vocal critics of the strikes", while "countries with right-wing leaders—such as Paraguay, Argentina, and Ecuador—have generally aligned themselves with the Trump administration's approach to drug trafficking and Maduro.
Other
During a G7 foreign ministers' meeting in Canada on 11 November 2025, the French foreign minister, Jean-Noël Barrot, criticized US military operations in the Caribbean, saying they violated international law and could contribute to regional instability. He was quoted as saying, "We have observed with concern the military operations in the Caribbean region, because they violate international law and because France has a presence in this region through its overseas territories, where more than a million of our compatriots reside," without citing specific US actions, and said that it was crucial to avoid “instability caused by potential escalations".
Canadian officials distanced the Canadian military and intelligence personnel from the strikes. Sources speaking to CNN said that Canada did not want its intelligence used for the strikes but that it intended to continue its partnership with the Coast Guard under Operation Caribbe. A Department of National Defence spokesperson stated that "Canadian Armed Forces activities under Operation Caribbe, conducted in co-ordination with the United States Coast Guard, are separate and distinct", referencing the strikes on suspected drug boats. On 12 November, when foreign affairs minister, Anita Anand, was asked whether Canada was withholding intelligence from Washington on narcotics trafficking in Latin America, she responded: "The US has made it clear it is using its own intelligence. We have no involvement in the operations you were referring to."
United Kingdom officials refused to comment on an 11 November CNN report that the UK had suspended intelligence sharing with the US about suspected drug trafficking vessels over the risks of being complicit in the strikes, which it reportedly believes are illegal. A spokesperson for Prime Minister Keir Starmer stated that "the US is our closest partner on defense, security, intelligence", while declining to comment on intelligence matters. Rubio denied the CNN report, calling it a "false story". Yvette Cooper, the UK foreign secretary, responded that intelligence sharing continues, and referenced Rubio's comment about the "false story".
Amid increasing tensions, many European high-level leaders cancelled their planned participation in a November summit held in Colombia between the European Union and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), in contrast to the 2023 EU–CELAC summit attended by numerous heads of state.
On 4 November, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning defended China's growing cooperation with Venezuela, saying it "constitutes normal cooperation between sovereign states" and is "not directed against any third party". She was quoted as saying "China supports strengthened international cooperation to combat transnational crime and opposes the use or threat of force in international relations." She added that China "opposes any attempt to undermine peace and stability in Latin America and the Caribbean, as well as unilateral coercive actions against foreign vessels that exceed reasonable and necessary limits." China urged the US to "carry out regular judicial and law enforcement cooperation through bilateral and multilateral legal frameworks".
The Iranian ambassador to the UN in Geneva condemned the attack as illegal under international law.
Journalist Katy Balls wrote that the strikes were "a response to Beijing's fast-growing influence in Latin America."
In November 2025, Pope Leo XIV noted that the strikes were gradually nearing Venezuela's coastline and stated that they were only "increasing tension"; he called for the United States and Venezuela to "seek dialogue".
Opinion polls
A Harvard CAPS/Harris poll from 1–2 October found that 71% of respondents supported the US destroying boats trafficking drugs from South America.
A Reuters/Ipsos poll from 7–12 November found that 51% of Americans opposed "killing suspected drug traffickers abroad without judicial process", while 29% supported it.
See also
- Air Bridge Denial Program – American program against drug trafficking
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