New US strikes kill 14 alleged drug traffickers, Mexico leads rescue of survivor
Written by: Idrees Ali and Phil Stewart
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said on Tuesday that 14 drug traffickers were killed and one survived in a series of U.S. attacks on suspected drug ships in the Eastern Pacific, the latest operation of President Donald Trump’s anti-drug campaign.
The attacks in the Pacific come against the backdrop of a US military buildup in the Caribbean that includes guided missile destroyers, F-35 fighter jets, a nuclear submarine and thousands of troops. The administration has ordered the Ford carrier strike group to the region and is expected to reach the Caribbean in the coming weeks.
In a social media post, Hegseth said Mexican authorities had taken over the search-and-rescue operation for the sole survivor of Monday’s three attacks.
“The four ships were known to our intelligence apparatus, were passing through known drug smuggling routes and were carrying narcotics,” Hegseth said, without providing evidence.
MANAGEMENT IS QUIET ABOUT THE DETAILS
However, Hegseth released a nearly 30-second video showing two ships close together in the water before the explosion. Another part of the video showed a ship moving through the water before it exploded.
Mexican officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The strikes followed at least 10 attacks in the Caribbean and Pacific since early September in a campaign that has increased US tensions with Venezuela and Colombia. Trump also authorized the CIA to conduct covert operations in Venezuela.
The Pentagon has released little information about the attacks, including the amount of drugs the boats allegedly carried and the identities of those killed.
The strikes caused alarm among some Democratic lawmakers who questioned whether they were complying with the laws of war.
Legal experts have questioned why the U.S. military, rather than the Coast Guard, the main U.S. maritime law enforcement agency, carried out the attacks and why other efforts were not made to stop the shipments before resorting to deadly attacks.
Reuters had previously reported that two alleged drug traffickers survived a US military strike in the Caribbean earlier this month. They were rescued and taken aboard a US Navy warship before being returned to Colombia and Ecuador.
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has repeatedly claimed that the United States hopes to remove him from power.
In August, Washington doubled its reward for information leading to Maduro’s arrest to $50 million and accused him of criminal groups and drug trafficking, which Maduro denies.
(Reporting by Idrees Ali and Phil Stewart. Additional reporting by Brendan O’Boyle, Editing by Franklin Paul and Rod Nickel)
