Journalism of Courage
US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said on Sunday that the military has all the authorisation it needs to carry out strikes in the Caribbean against vessels suspected of transporting illegal drugs near Venezuela.
In an interview with Fox News’ The Sunday Briefing, Hegseth said, “We have every authorisation needed. These are designated as foreign terrorist organisations.”
The United States carried out a strike on Friday that killed four people, the fourth such attack in recent weeks, according to Reuters.
Hegseth and President Donald Trump have not presented evidence that the targeted boats were carrying drugs. Reuters reported that Trump told Congress last week he had determined the United States was in “a non-international armed conflict” with drug cartels, though he gave no new legal explanation for the strikes.
Critics have said the operations could be a way for Trump to test the limits of his presidential powers. Legal experts have also questioned why the US military, rather than the Coast Guard which normally handles maritime law enforcement is carrying out the attacks.
“If you’re in our hemisphere, if you’re in the Caribbean, if you’re north of Venezuela and you want to traffic drugs to the United States, you are a legitimate target of the United States military,” Hegseth said, according to Reuters.
Trump told reporters at the White House on Sunday that the US military presence in the Caribbean had stopped drug trafficking from South America. “There’s no drugs coming into the water. And we’ll look at what phase two is,” he said, as quoted by Reuters.
