The US Army targets two boats suspected of smuggling drugs in the Pacific

The US Army announced that it killed five people suspected of involvement in drug smuggling after targeting two boats in the Pacific Ocean, bringing the number of victims of the US military operation to combat smuggling to about 104.

The administration of US President Donald Trump has been carrying out such strikes in the Caribbean Sea and the eastern Pacific Ocean since last September, but it has not provided any conclusive evidence of the boats’ involvement in smuggling, which raises controversy over the legitimacy of the operations.

The US Southern Command said in a statement on the “X” platform the day before yesterday that the recent strikes targeted two boats in international waters that were “participating in drug smuggling operations,” adding that three people were killed in the first boat and two people in the second. The raids have so far resulted in the deaths of 104 people, according to Agence France-Presse statistics based on official data.

For his part, Trump stressed that he does not need Congress’ approval to launch strikes on Venezuela, indicating his fear of information leakage.

Trump said in response to a journalist’s question about whether he intends to request Congress’s approval to launch ground strikes in Venezuela: “I have no objection to informing them… I am not obligated to do so,” adding: “I just hope they do not leak information.” You know, people leak information like this. “They are politicians, and they leak information like liquids leak through refineries.”

The use of the US military in an anti-drug campaign has raised questions about whether Trump is preparing to launch a ground attack against Venezuela, and also whether in this case he should request authorization from Congress.

Last Wednesday, the House of Representatives rejected two Democratic draft resolutions demanding an end to the strikes and “hostile actions in or against Venezuela” before obtaining authorization from the House.

Trump imposed a naval blockade on “sanctioned oil ships” leaving and heading to Venezuela, in a new escalation of the pressure campaign he is waging against Caracas.

He wrote on his platform, “Truth Social,” days after American forces seized an oil tanker off the Venezuelan coast, “I issued an order to impose a complete and comprehensive blockade on all sanctioned oil tankers that enter and leave Venezuela.”

He added that the huge American naval fleet deployed in the Caribbean region “will increase in size,” until Venezuela “returns to the United States of America all the oil, lands, and other assets that it previously stole from us,” as he put it.

The US President did not specify what type of oil or land he was referring to, but Venezuela nationalized its oil sector in the 1970s. Later, under former President Maduro Hugo Chavez, the companies were forced to cede majority control to the Venezuelan state oil company, PDVSA.

“The illegal Maduro regime is using oil from these stolen oil fields to fund itself, drug terrorism, human trafficking, murder, and kidnapping,” Trump continued.