On 2 September 2025, the United States government announced that the U.S. Navy had carried out an airstrike on a small boat in the southern Caribbean, which it said was operated by the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua and was allegedly transporting narcotics. According to the administration, 11 suspected gang members were killed, and it released video footage it claimed showed the strike. The Venezuelan government accused the U.S. of committing 11 extrajudicial murders. Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro accused the U.S. of threatening regime change by this strike and the build up of U.S. naval forces in the area.
Several experts have questioned the legality of the strike under U.S. law and international law.
The alleged 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 allegedly killed.[2][3]
According to the Argentine newspaper Clarín, unnamed officials from the first administration of U.S. president Donald Trump stated that a military intervention in Venezuela was discussed in 2017 with advisors, including Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and National Security Advisor H. R. McMaster, and later with several Latin American leaders, such as Juan Manuel Santos of Colombia.[4]
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.[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, clarifying that the government had "not signaled any planned land incursion".[9] In response, Maduro mobilized over four million soldiers of the Bolivarian Militia across Venezuela.[7][9]
On 2 September, a U.S. military vessel was reported to have allegedly sunk a four-engine speedboat smuggling drugs from Venezuela in the southern Caribbean[10] during a high-seas interdiction mission.[1][11] 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".[12] In a post on Truth Social, Trump stated that eleven members of Tren de Aragua had been killed in the operation.[13] Rubio confirmed the sinking on social media, stating the vessel was operated by a "designated narco-terrorist organization".[14]
Trump posted footage of the attack on Truth Social, showing the missile striking the boat, which erupts into flames.[15]
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.[11]
Legality
Several experts have questioned the legality of the strike under U.S. law and international law. Adam Isacson of the Washington Office on Latin America said the strike "[l]ooks like a massacre of civilians at sea," stating that "'Not yielding to pursuers' or 'suspected of carrying drugs' doesn't carry a death sentence."[16] 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, but that the administration's use of the term "narco-terrorists" may hint at this being their legal justification.[17]
The Trump administration has not stated what legal authority or justification the military had to carry out the strike.[18][19]The Atlantic suggested that Trump was relying on his Article II powers. 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.[20]
Aftermath
President Trump hinted towards further military action, stating: "There's more where that came from."[10]
Diosdado Cabello, Venezuela's Ministry of Interior, Justice and Peace, called the killings extrajudicial murders. Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro accused the U.S. of threatening regime change by this strike and build up of U.S. naval forces in the area. He denied any criminal connections to drug traffickers.[15]Freddy Ñáñez, the Venezuelan communications minister, stated that the footage of the attack was fake.[23] 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 the USS Jason Dunham.[24]
United States
James Stavridis, a former US Navy admiral, characterized the strike and other US 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 US military activity.[25] On September 5th Trump ordered the deployment of 10 F-35 fighters, to conduct combat air patrols in the region and support the Southern Caribbean fleet, amid growing tensions.[26][27][28][29][30] Following the flyover of the USS Jason Dunham, Trump gave permission to shoot down Venezuelan planes if they presented a danger to U.S. ships.[31]
Other
Colombian president Gustavo Petro[32] and the Iranian ambassador to the UN in Geneva condemned the attack as illegal under international law.[33] Spokeswoman for the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs Maria Zakharova also denounced the strike, calling it "absolutely unacceptable."[34]
Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago Kamla Persad-Bissessar praised the U.S. attack and encouraged more operations against drug traffickers.[35]
↑ 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.
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