WASHINGTON (AP) 鈥� The U.S. military said Tuesday that it carried out strikes on three boats accused of smuggling drugs in Latin American waters, killing 11 people in one of the deadliest days of the against alleged traffickers.
The series of strikes conducted Monday brought the death toll to at least 145 people since the administration began targeting those it calls 鈥渘arcoterrorists鈥� in small vessels since early September.
Like most of the military鈥檚 statements on the 42 known strikes, U.S. Southern Command said it targeted alleged drug traffickers along known smuggling routes. It said two vessels carrying four people each were struck in the eastern Pacific Ocean, while a third boat with three people was hit in the Caribbean Sea.
The military did not provide evidence that the vessels were ferrying drugs but posted videos on X that showed boats being destroyed.
The videos posted by Southern Command show the boats either moving or bobbing in the water before the explosions engulf them in flames. People can be seen sitting in two of the small, open vessels before they’re destroyed.
President Donald Trump has said the U.S. is in 鈥渁rmed conflict鈥� with cartels in Latin America and has as a necessary escalation to stem the flow of drugs.
Critics of the strikes as well as their effectiveness, in part because the fentanyl behind many fatal overdoses is typically trafficked to the U.S. , where it is produced with chemicals imported from China and India.
The boat strikes also following the revelation that the military killed survivors of the very first boat attack with a follow-up strike. The Trump administration and many Republican lawmakers said it was legal and necessary, while Democratic lawmakers and the killings were murder, if not a war crime.
The attacks followed the Trump administration beginning one of the largest buildups of U.S. military might in Latin America in generations as part of a pressure campaign that culminated with the . He was brought to the U.S. to after a Jan. 3 raid by American forces.
The world’s largest aircraft carrier was late last year and told last week to as tensions between grow.
USS Gerald R. Ford and three accompanying destroyers were in the mid-Atlantic on Tuesday and no longer in the U.S. Southern Command鈥檚 area of operations, according to a Navy official, who spoke on condition of anonymity in order to discuss sensitive ship movements.
The Ford will bolster an array of U.S. warships in the Middle East that includes the .
Since Maduro’s capture, the U.S. military has reported several boat strikes, while American forces also have connected with Venezuela as part of the Trump administration鈥檚 broader efforts of the South American country鈥檚 oil.
Republicans in Congress have to rein in Trump鈥檚 ability to conduct further attacks in Venezuela.
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