US Military Strikes on Venezuelan Drug Boats Raise Legal and Strategic Questions

"...The president is justifying deadly military strikes on fatal US overdoses...."

"...But Venezuela is linked to cocaine, which is far less deadly than fentanyl...."

"...That’s reason enough, Trump and administration officials say, for launching U.S. military attacks that have killed at least 87 people in recent months – including two men clinging to wreckage after they survived an initial Sept. 2 strike that killed nine other suspected smugglers...."

"...They say it even warrants a potential attack on Venezuelan soil, which Trump has implied may be in the offing...."

"...While Trump does not seem to distinguish between cocaine and fentanyl, drug overdose deaths from cocaine only rose from 12,122 in 2015 to 59,725 in 2023 because nearly 70% of those more recent deaths involved cocaine mixed with fentanyl, according to the CDC...."

"...Critics of Trump’s policies say that the president is conflating the two drugs to claim vast powers as judge, jury and executioner that have been used in the past only against terrorist organizations aiming to kill Americans following the Sept. 11, 2001 al-Qaeda attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people...."

"...By doing so, legal experts say the strikes raise increasingly urgent – and unresolved − questions about whether Trump is violating domestic and international law...."

"...Trump and senior officials frame Venezuela as a “narcoterrorist” state whose government-affiliated criminal networks pose a national security threat to the United States...."

"...The administration has designated Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua criminal gang and the Cartel de los Soles − a loose network of corrupt military officials accused of trafficking drugs – as terrorist organizations under Executive Order 14157...."

"...That Executive Order, issued in January, is formally titled "Designating Cartels and Other Organizations as Foreign Terrorist Organizations and Specially Designated Global Terrorists."..."

"...It is designed to sanction transnational cartels that “constitute a national security threat beyond that posed by traditional organized crime.”..."

"...The order led Secretary of State Marco Rubio to claim Aug. 8 that it gives the administration the authority to treat those designated cartels – presumably even the small boat smugglers suspected of carrying cocaine rather than fentanyl – as “armed terrorist organizations, not simply drug dealing organizations.”..."

"...Trump has gone even further rhetorically...."

"...After Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky went public with his concerns that the attacks amounted to illegal “extrajudicial killings,” Trump said his administration would be willing to brief lawmakers on the strikes...."

"...But on Oct. 23, Trump said he saw no reason to seek congressional authorization for them...."

"...Instead of asking for a "declaration of war" from Congress, Trump said, "I think we’re just gonna kill people that are bringing drugs into our country. … “They’re going to be, like, dead.”..."

"...And, Trump added, “The land is going to be next.”..."

"...Trump also has cited a 2020 Justice Department indictment from his first term that accused Maduro of collaborating with Colombia's left-wing FARC guerrilla group to use cocaine as a weapon against the United States...."

"...“On the campaign trail, President Trump promised to take on the cartels – and he has taken unprecedented action to stop the scourge of narcoterrorism that has resulted in the needless deaths of innocent Americans," Deputy White House Press Secretary Anna Kelly told USA TODAY...."

"..."All of these decisive strikes have been against designated narcoterrorists bringing deadly poison to our shores, and the President will continue to use every element of American power to stop drugs from flooding into our country.”..."

"...Do Venezuelan criminal groups traffic drugs?..."

"...Cocaine typically moves north from Colombia through Central America and onward via the maritime transit routes in the eastern Pacific and the Caribbean...."

"...A very small percentage of cocaine does pass through Venezuela, particularly for shipments headed toward the Caribbean and Europe, according to UNODC trafficking maps...."

"...But the maps show virtually none of that cocaine leaving Venezuelan shores headed for the United States...."

"...Instead, maritime routes skipping Venezuela entirely historically have been far more dominant in getting cocaine to Mexico, where the cartels there smuggle them into the United States via various means...."

"...The Cartel de los Soles has for the past several decades been involved in various corrupt activities, including cocaine trafficking, usually with the FARC...."

"...Justice Department indictments have targeted Maduro and some of his top aides, both in the civilian government and the military, including former Vice President Tareck El Aissami, Diosdado Cabello Rondon and Hugo “El Pollo” Carvajal Barrios...."

"...Tren de Aragua, long vilified by Trump, is involved in many crimes, including extortion, racketeering, drug and human trafficking conspiracy and firearms offenses...."

"...During his campaign for president last year, Trump repeatedly warned about the threat of Tren de Aragua to U.S. communities − and used its connections to some low-level crime to strengthen his call for mass deportations of undocumented immigrants from Venezuela...."

"...The group’s many offshoots are considered by some U.S. officials to be violent and influential regionally...."

"...But available international drug-tracking data does not support claims that they are significantly involved in cocaine smuggling into the U.S...."

"...There is also conflicting evidence about whether the group even works with Maduro, as the Trump administration claims, or against his regime...."

"...Last July, Maduro stated at a police ceremony that Venezuela had “finished off Tren de Aragua.”..."

"...And Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yván Gil declared last year that Tren de Aragua no longer existed, according to InSight Crime, a think tank and media organization specializing in investigating organized crime in the Americas...."

"...“We have demonstrated that the Tren de Aragua is a fiction created by the international media to create a nonexistent label,” Gil reportedly said...."