United States president Donald Trump announced on 2 September 2025 that the U.S. Navy had carried out an airstrike the day before in the southern Caribbean on a boat from Venezuela, killing all 11 people on the vessel. Trump released a video of the strike. According to the Trump administration, the vessel was operated by alleged members of the gang Tren de Aragua and transporting narcotics. The administration of Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro denied the strike had happened and said the video was fake; inhabitants of the town the boat originated from acknowledged the incident and posted tributes to the deceased on social media.
The strike came amid heightened tensions between the United States and Venezuela following the deployment of U.S. Navy warships and personnel to the region. The next day, U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said military operations against drug cartels in Venezuela would continue, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio suggested that similar strikes could follow, without providing evidence to substantiate the identities of those killed.[3][4]
Several experts questioned the legality of the strike under U.S. law and international law. The Venezuelan government accused the U.S. of committing extrajudicial murder and Maduro said the U.S. was threatening regime change with the strike and the buildup of U.S. naval forces in the area.
During the Trump administration's second term, the U.S. intensified its focus on drug cartels, designating the Venezuelan Cartel of the Suns as a terrorist organization and doubling the reward for the capture of President Nicolás Maduro to $50 million.[1][5] On 18 August 2025, the U.S. deployed three warships and approximately 4,000 sailors and Marines to the coast of Venezuela, citing the need to combat drug cartels.[6][7][8]
On 29 August, PBS News reported that Trump was utilizing the military to counter cartels he blamed for trafficking fentanyl and other illicit drugs into the U.S. and for fueling violence in American cities, stating that the government had "not signaled any planned land incursion"[9] – similarly, The Guardian stated that "many experts are skeptical the US is planning a military intervention".[1]
On 2 September, the U.S. announced that a military vessel struck and sank a speedboat that it alleged was smuggling drugs from Venezuela in the southern Caribbean[12] during a high-seas interdiction mission.[1][13] Trump announced the attack from the White House, describing the target as "loaded" with narcotics bound for the United States and emphasizing it carried a "lot of drugs".[14] In a post on Truth Social, Trump stated that 11 members of Tren de Aragua were killed in the operation.[15] Rubio confirmed the sinking on social media, stating the vessel was operated by a "designated narco-terrorist organization".[16] Venezuela's El Nacional stated that the boat was destroyed on 1 September.[17]
The vessel came from San Juan de Unare, located on the Paria Peninsula in Sucre (a coastal state in the northeastern part of Venezuela).[2][18] Inhabitants describing a town in mourning[19] published tributes containing photos of the deceased beginning early on 3 September.[20][2] The deceased included eight persons from San Juan de Unare and three from a nearby town, Güiria.[17]
El Pitazo reported that the boat was a flipper type with four 200-horsepower engines, about 12 metres (39ft) long, and was headed for nearby Trinidad and Tobago. Two other vessels which departed at about the same time escaped detection.[2][17][21][22] U.S. military veteran Luis Quiñonez stated in a television interview that three warnings (in English, Spanish and Portuguese) to stop were issued,[23] and sources told journalist Sebastiana Barráez[es] that the vessel carried a "considerable cargo" and that some had been thrown overboard before the U.S. attack.[17]
Originally a fishing village, San Juan de Unare had been for two decades taken over as a transit point in the drug trade, according to Ronna Rísquez.[24]France 24 stated that local media reported the town had been since 2018 a "strategic hub for drug trafficking, human trafficking, and irregular migration" and that Tren de Aragua ran drugs ultimately destined for the U.S. from the Sucre coast via Caribbean islands.[19] According to Efecto Cocuyo, Sucre state's location, close to Trinidad, "facilitates the proliferation of these illicit activities, a fact that has been widely documented by various organizations ...in multiple investigations".[18] An anonymous expert on organized crime told Efecto Cocuyo that drug trafficking in the region originates outside San Juan de Unare, facilitating transhipment of drugs originating in Colombia, and that gangs such as Tren de Aragua are "attempting to control these territories to establish direct transportation routes to the islands of the Eastern Caribbean".[18]
Trump posted footage of the attack on Truth Social, showing the missile striking the boat and setting the boat on fire.[25] A U.S. spokesperson later confirmed that either an undisclosed military helicopter or an MQ-9 Reaper drone struck the boat. Rubio added that it appeared that the boat was headed to Trinidad or another Caribbean country.[13]
President Trump hinted towards further military action, stating: "There's more where that came from."[12]
The U.S. Navy has increased the size of the patrolling group in the region.[11] On 4 September, in response to the presence of U.S. Navy warships in the region, two Venezuelan F-16 fighter jets conducted a flyover of USSJason Dunham,[26] after which Trump gave permission to shoot down Venezuelan planes if they presented a danger to U.S. ships.[27]
On 5 September, Trump ordered the deployment of ten F-35 fighters to Puerto Rico, to conduct combat air patrols in the region and support the Southern Caribbean fleet, amid growing tensions.[27][28][29] Two days later, Venezuela acknowledged "drug trafficking routes" and announced that it would increase troops, from 10,000 to 25,000, to combat drug trafficking in coastal and border states, including the Sucre state.[30]
During a surprise trip on 8 September to Puerto Rico with U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, Dan Caine, Hegseth told sailors and Marines assigned to the area: "What you're doing right now – it's not training ...This is the real-world exercise on behalf of the vital national interests of the United States of America to end the poisoning of the American people."[31]
Legality
The Trump administration did not initially state what legal authority or justification the military had to carry out the strike.[32][33] Asked about what legal authority the Pentagon invoked to strike the boat, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth declared, "We have the absolute and complete authority", citing "...the defense of the American people alone. 100,000 Americans were killed each year under the previous administration because of an open border and open drug traffic flow. That is an assault on the American people."[34][35]Jake Tapper asked Tom Homan how the President has authority to conduct such a strike; Homan deferred to the Department of Justice or the Department of Defense, saying the cartels had "...killed more Americans than any war."[36]
An expert in U.S. constitutional law from King's College London stated to the BBC that it is not clear if the strike would fall under the presidential powers granted by the Authorization for Use of Military Force of 2001 (AUMF), but that the administration's use of the term "narco-terrorists" may hint at this being their legal justification.[40] According to CSIS, AUMF for several decades "has substituted for a formal declaration of war", and was used in 2001 to authorize war against "nations, organizations, or persons [the president] determines planned, authorized, committed, or aided” the September 11 attacks or "harbored such organizations or persons".[38] CSIS states that this authorization has been "used as a controversial legal basis for U.S. counterterrorism operations against the Taliban, al-Qaeda, and other organizations" and Joe Biden "did not seek congressional authorization for its frequent strikes against the Houthis in Yemen".[38] Political scientist Peter Feaver noted that every presidential administration since Ronald Reagan's considered deploying military force in the war on drugs, but only the second Trump administration followed through.[39]
Adam Isacson of the Washington Office on Latin America said the strike "[l]ooks like a massacre of civilians at sea".[37] In an interview with Democracy Now!, Greg Grandin questioned whether the boat was actually being used to smuggle drugs, arguing that such a boat would not have carried 11 passengers in order to maximize the space that could be used for smuggling. Grandin said that the strike was "bringing the logic of Gaza into the Caribbean, in terms of unaccountability, impunity and an expansive notion of national defense to justify what is, in effect, just extrajudicial killing."[41]
Senator Mark Warner said he was worried about putting American sailors "in harm's way by violating international law", and declared that neither he, a member of the Gang of Eight, nor the Senate Intelligence Committee were briefed ahead of the operation.[42] A bipartisan briefing scheduled for 5 September was abruptly cancelled.[43]
Reactions
Venezuela
Early on 3 September, tributes containing photos, videos and names of the deceased began to appear on social media.[20] There was no response from the Maduro administration for four hours after the strike was announced; Freddy Ñáñez, the Venezuelan communications minister, was the first Venezuelan official to address the strike.[20] He stated that the footage of the attack was fake.[44] Inhabitants of San Juan de Unare disagree with this version.[2][19][17][21]
The next day, on 4 September,[20] Attorney General Tarek William Saab said the attack never occurred.[45]
Maduro accused the U.S. of threatening regime change with the strike and build up of U.S. naval forces in the area. He denied any criminal connections to drug traffickers.[25]Delcy Rodriguez, the vice president of Venezuela, asked on 8 September, "How can there be a drug cartel if there's no drugs here?"[31]
United States
James Stavridis, a former U.S. Navy admiral, characterized the strike and other U.S. military activity around the same time as gunboat diplomacy intended to demonstrate the vulnerability of Venezuelan oil rigs and materiel. He wrote that drug interdiction was likely not the sole reason for the increased U.S. military activity.[46]
In an exchange on X, Vice President JD Vance stated, "Killing cartel members who poison our fellow citizens is the highest and best use of our military," to which writer Brian Krassenstein responded, "killing the citizens of another nation who are civilians without any due process is called a war crime", Vance responded "I don't give a shit what you call it." Senator Rand Paul intervened in the argument, saying "What a despicable and thoughtless sentiment it is to glorify killing someone without a trial."[47] Senator Bernie Moreno responded to Paul saying, "what’s really despicable is defending foreign terrorist drug traffickers who are *directly* responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Americans in Kentucky and Ohio."[48]
Jennifer Gonzalez, the governor of Puerto Rico, thanked the Trump Administration on 9 September 2025 for the "fight against drug cartels in our hemisphere".[31]
Other
Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago Kamla Persad-Bissessar praised the U.S. attack and encouraged more operations against drug traffickers, saying: 'The pain and suffering the cartels have inflicted on our nation is immense. I have no sympathy for traffickers; the U.S. military should kill them all violently."[24][49]
Colombian president Gustavo Petro said that attacking the boat occupants in drug interdictions rather than capturing them amounted to murder.[49] When asked whose side he was on, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said he was on the side of peace, favored negotiations, and that U.S. forces in the Caribbean had become a source of tension.[50][51][52]
Spokeswoman for the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs Maria Zakharova denounced the strike, calling it "absolutely unacceptable".[53] The Iranian ambassador to the UN in Geneva condemned the attack as illegal under international law.[54]
↑ Edith Olmsted (5 September 2025). "Pete Hegseth Claims "Absolute Authority" After "Drug Boat" Strike". The New Republic. Retrieved 8 September 2025. Speaking to reporters Wednesday, Hegseth was asked what legal authority the Pentagon had invoked to carry out its deadly strike on a vessel officials claim was carrying drugs. (...) "I'd say we smoked the drug boat, and there's eleven narco terrorists at the bottom of the ocean. And when other people try to do that, they're gonna meet the same fate," Hegseth continued.
1 2 Youssef, Nancy A.; Ryan, Missy; Lemire, Jonathan; Harris, Shane (4 September 2025). "Trump Is Crossing a Line That Dates Back to the Revolution". The Atlantic. Retrieved 4 September 2025. "Applying this approach to the drug mission would have been considered and debated in every administration since Reagan." But none of Trump's predecessors ultimately decided to go through with it.
↑ Stephen Neukam (5 September 2025). "Trump officials cancel bipartisan briefing on Venezuela strike". Axios. Retrieved 8 September 2025. Trump officials on Friday abruptly cancelled a briefing with top Senate national security and leadership staff about the deadly U.S. strike on a drug vessel off the coast of Venezuela. Why it matters: Top Democrats this week said they were left in the dark ahead of the operation, which the administration has suggested is the start of a broader military campaign. Officials pulled the plug on the bipartisan briefing Friday after attendees had already arrived, we are told. The session has been rescheduled for next week, according to a person familiar with the matter. The AP was first to report that Friday's briefing was canceled.
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