In a video posted to Donald Trump\u2019s Truth Social account, crosshairs hover above a black-and-white image of a speedboat cutting through water. Seconds later, the boat explodes into a ball of flames.<\/p>\n
The president said defense officials had carried out a strike against 11 \u201cterrorists\u201d from the Venezuelan gang, Tren de Aragua, Tuesday morning as part of the administration\u2019s escalating war against drug cartels.<\/p>\n
Legal experts and former national security officials have disputed the president\u2019s legal authority to launch extrajudicial killings against suspected drug traffickers, raising consequential questions on both the administration\u2019s growing conflict with Venezuela, and the president\u2019s anti-immigration agenda.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is zero evidence of self-defense here. Looks like a massacre of civilians at sea,\u201d according to Adam Isacson, director for defense oversight at research and advocacy group, Washington Office on Latin America. \u201cEven if they had drugs aboard, that\u2019s not a capital offense.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lethal force against civilians in international waters \u201cis a war crime if not in self-defense,\u201d according to Isacson. \u201c\u2018Not yielding to pursuers\u2019 or \u2018suspected of carrying drugs\u2019 doesn\u2019t carry a death sentence.\u201d<\/p>\n
Donald Trump shared video of a missile strike killing 11 people on a boat that officials claim was carrying drugs headed toward the United States (White House)Even if one were to accept the administration\u2019s framing of the attack, \u201cthis action is legally questionable under both U.S. and international law,\u201d according to Juan S. Gonzalez, a former National Security Council official under Joe Biden.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs it stands, the administration is claiming authority to sink any vessel it \u2018deems\u2019 tied to drug trafficking. That\u2019s a slippery slope,\u201d he said. \u201cWithout checks, the U.S. risks killing fishermen, migrants, or other civilians\u2026 and we\u2019d just have to take the [administration] at its word.\u201d<\/p>\n
Asked for a response to concerns about the legality of the attack, a White House spokesperson told The Independent that the \u201cpresidentially-directed strike\u201d was performed in defense of \u201cvital U.S. national interests and in the collective self-defense of other nations who have long suffered due to the narcotics trafficking and violent cartel activities of such organizations.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe strike was fully consistent with the law of armed conflict,\u201d White House spokesperson Anna Kelly told The Independent. \u201cThis precision strike in international waters was conducted in a manner to minimize the risk to U.S. personnel and did not entail the use of ground forces.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Independent has requested comment from the Department of Defense.<\/p>\n
In his Truth Social post Tuesday, Trump claimed officials had \u201cpositively identified Tren de Aragua Narcoterrorists\u201d who were \u201coperating under the control of Nicolas Maduro,\u201d Venezuela\u2019s president.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd there\u2019s more where that came from,\u201d Trump said from the White House Tuesday.<\/p>\n
The White House claims that Maduro directed an \u201cinvasion\u201d of gang members into the U.S.<\/p>\n
But that contradicts reports from Trump\u2019s own intelligence agencies, which disputed the claims that at the heart of Trump\u2019s use of the Alien Enemies Act.<\/p>\n
In January, Trump issued an executive order designating Tren de Aragua as a foreign terrorist organization, paving the way for his order invoking the Alien Enemies Act to summarily deport suspected gang members.<\/p>\n
Dozens of Venezuelans were deported from the U.S. to El Salvador\u2019s brutal Terrorism Confinement Center beginning March 15, after Trump invoked the centuries-old wartime law to swiftly remove alleged Tren de Aragua members without a chance to challenge the allegations in court.<\/p>\n
The Alien Enemies Act grants authority to the president to remove immigrants during a declared war or if there is an “invasion\u201d or \u201cpredatory incursion,\u201d but several federal judges and Trump\u2019s own intelligence personnel have disputed that immigration constitutes and \u201cinvasion.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump said \u2018there\u2019s more where that came from\u2019 as he defends a military strike that killed 11 people on a boat that administration officials claim was carrying drugs on behalf of Tren de Aragua (AP)Government officials also admitted in court documents that \u201cmany\u201d deported Venezuelans did not have criminal records. Attorneys and family members say their clients and relatives \u2014 some of whom were in the country with legal permission and have upcoming court hearings on asylum claims \u2014 have nothing to do with Tren de Aragua.<\/p>\n
Four months after those men were locked in a brutal Salvadoran prison, the Trump administration negotiated their release back to Venezuela as part of a prisoner exchange. <\/p>\n
Then, in a remarkable statement, Trump officials said they \u201cobtained assurances\u201d from Maduro\u2019s government to cooperate with court orders for Venezuelan citizens to return to the U.S., if required to do so \u2014 potentially putting them back into a country the Trump administration insisted they should never be inside.<\/p>\n
Neither the Alien Enemies Act nor \u201cforeign terrorist organization\u201d designations allow for lethal force.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the Department of Defense has deployed more than 4,000 troops and several guided-missile vessels to waters around Latin America and the Caribbean to combat the flow of illegal drugs into the U.S. <\/p>\n
One day before the boat attack, Maduro warned Trump to \u201cwatch out\u201d because Secretary of State Marco Rubio \u201cwants to stain your hands with blood.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rubio told reporters this week that the administration is \u201cgoing to wage combat against drug cartels that are flooding American streets and killing Americans.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat will stop them is when you blow them up, when you get rid of them,\u201d Rubio said Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Deploying lethal force on suspicion of illegal activity \u201cviolates the letter and spirit of more than a century of international standards and the United States\u2019 own regulations for maritime operations against civilian vessels in international waters,\u201d according to the Washington Office on Latin America. <\/p>\n
\u201cIf yesterday\u2019s act is a harbinger of more U.S. military actions involving excessive force when conducting drug interdiction operations, then it sets a bleak and dangerous precedent for more unlawful killings and violations of fundamental human rights principles, and threatens to undermine international norms that serve to prevent and to punish lawlessness on the seas,\u201d the group said Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said the US is going to \u2018wage combat\u2019 against drug cartels as he defended the boat attack (POOL\/AFP via Getty Images)\u201cRules of Engagement exist for a reason: to minimize civilian casualties. Destroying a boat at sea without boarding or verifying opens the door to tragedy,\u201d Gonzalez, the former national security official, said.<\/p>\n
\u201cCombating drug trafficking is vital. But we must do so lawfully, responsibly, [and] with tools designed for the mission,\u201d he added, calling the administration’s attack \u201cpolitical theater\u201d that won\u2019t combat trafficking or Maduro.<\/p>\n
Speaking on FOX & Friends Wednesday morning, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said he watched the attack \u201clive.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe knew exactly who was in that boat, we know exactly what they were doing, and we know exactly who they represented,\u201d Hegseth said.<\/p>\n
The attack has \u201csent a clear signal,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s a new day. It\u2019s a different day.\u201d<\/p>\n
Drug traffickers \u201cwill face the same fate,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe only person who should be worried is Nicolas Maduro,\u201d who Hegseth accused of \u201crunning a narco state\u201d and is \u201cinvolved in types of drug running that have affected the country directly.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pressed for evidence against the alleged traffickers, Trump told reporters at the White House that the boat was carrying \u201cmassive amounts of drugs.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have tapes of them speaking,\u201d he said Wednesday. \u201cYou see the bags of drugs all over the boat \u2026 A lot of other people won\u2019t be doing it after watching that tape.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In a video posted to Donald Trump\u2019s Truth Social account, crosshairs hover above a black-and-white image of a speedboat cutting through water. Seconds later, the boat explodes into a ball of flames. The president said defense officials had carried out a strike against 11 \u201cterrorists\u201d from the Venezuelan gang, Tren de Aragua, Tuesday morning as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4822,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[173],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4821","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n