President Trump said that a military strike was carried out Tuesday against a ship carrying drugs that departed from Venezuela, saying the ship was operated by “Tren de Aragua Narcoterrorists.”
Speaking in the Oval Office on a separate matter, Mr. Trump announced that the strike took place “moments ago.”
“We have a lot of drugs pouring into our country, coming in for a long time, and this came out of Venezuela,” he said.
According to the president, 11 members of the Tren de Aragua cartel were killed in the operation that occurred in international waters.
A short time after the president’s Oval Office remarks, Secretary of State Marco Rubio confirmed on X that the U.S. military “conducted a lethal strike in the southern Caribbean against a drug vessel which had departed from Venezuela.”
He said the ship was operated by a “designated narco-terrorist organization.”
Mr. Rubio made the social media posts while en route to Mexico and Ecuador to discuss dismantling cartels and fentanyl trafficking.
The Venezuelan government has not publicly acknowledged the military strike.
In a follow-up statement on Truth Social, Mr. Trump said he ordered the strike on the drug ship out of Venezuela, which was “positively identified Tren de Aragua Narcoterrorists.”
“The strike occurred while the terrorists were at sea in International waters transporting illegal narcotics, heading to the United States,” he wrote. “The strike resulted in 11 terrorists killed in action. No U.S. Forces were harmed in this strike. Please let this serve as notice to anybody even thinking about bringing drugs into the United States of America. BEWARE!”
The U.S. has increased its naval presence in the southern Caribbean in an attempt to thwart drug cartels. There have been no plans for a land invasion.
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro did not welcome the increased presence, and said Monday that he “would constitutionally declare a republic in arms” if any U.S. forces attacked his country.
The Maduro administration responded by deploying its own troops along the coast and the border it shares with Colombia. The government has also called for enlistments into its civilian militia.
“In the face of this maximum military pressure, we have declared maximum preparedness for the defense of Venezuela,” Mr. Maduro said.
He called the increased military presence “an extravagant, unjustifiable, immoral and absolutely criminal and bloody threat.”
Venezuelan Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino López said the country is ready to confront “any attack” from the U.S.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum and Colombian President Gustavo Petro have been vocally against foreign interference in Venezuela, saying it could escalate tensions.
“I told Trump, through his emissaries, that it would be the worst mistake,” Mr. Gustavo said of U.S. intervention into Venezuela, The City Paper Bogota reported last month. “And it is not, as the press says, that we are allies of Maduro. My term will pass, so too that of Maduro’s, whatever the year. My time is set by the Constitution.”
Rep. Carlos Gimenez, Florida Republican, applauded the military action at sea.
“Things are escalating there,” he said on CNN. “The president of the United States is trying to protect American citizens. Thousands of Americans have died of overdoses with drugs supplied by that cartel and other cartels.”
