The US military attacks a new boat in the Caribbean, accusing it of being a drug trafficker.

WashingtonThe US military has attacked a new boat leaving Venezuela for the Caribbean Sea, accusing it of being manned by drug traffickers. "Four male narco-terrorists on board the vessel were killed during the attack, and no US forces were injured in the operation," Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth announced this Friday in a post on X.

sign an executive order to reclassify certain cartels as terrorist organizations.

The fourth military strike against an alleged narco-lanxa comes as the US government has not yet been able to cite under what authority it is killing people on the high seas with the simple argument that it has internal evidence that they were drug traffickers. All with accusations and one modus operandi confirming that Trump wants to recover the dynamics of the early 2000s war on terror with Al Qaeda. Although in this case it is to exert pressure especially in Latin America, with a return of the doctrine of backyard as an area that Washington must have within its sphere of influence to protect its interests.

"Our intelligence confirmed, without a doubt, that this vessel was trafficking drugs, that the people on board were narcoterrorists, and that they were operating on a known drug trafficking route. These attacks will continue until the attacks against the American people cease," Hegse wrote. a warlike attack. The distortion of the concept responds to the narrative that the White House has been creating to justify its operations. This week, the executive branch presented the argument to Congress to justify the first attack, last September, and informed the legislature, in a confidential note, that the United States is now in an "armed conflict" with drug trafficking.

With this notification to Congress, Trump intends to pave the way for the invocation of extraordinary war powers. In an armed conflict, as defined by international law, a country can legally kill its war enemies even when they pose no threat, as well as detain them indefinitely and deny them trials. To accelerate his campaign of mass deportations, in March the president invoked the Alien Enemies Act to deport more than 200 Venezuelans and Salvadorans to El Salvador on charges of belonging to MS-13 and the Tren de Aragua gang. Both gangs have now been designated by the president as terrorist groups.

Drums of war?

The attack on the boat continues to heat up the atmosphere in the region, where the situation is becoming a pressure cooker due to the presence of a fleet of three American destroyers at the limits from Venezuelan waters and the continued attacks on boats leaving Venezuela. On Thursday, Venezuelan Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino López denounced the presence of five US fighter jets flying very close to Venezuela, specifically off the country's northern central coast. "It's a provocation, a great threat to the security of the nation," Padrino denounced.

The South American country's air defense system detected "more than five aircraft with flight characteristics of 400 knots and flying at an altitude of 35,000 feet." "These are fighter jets that US imperialism has dared to bring close to Venezuelan shores," the minister said.

For more than a month, the Trump administration has launched a pressure campaign against the regime of Nicolás Maduro, which it accuses of collaborating with the criminal gang Cartel of the Suns. The Venezuelan group is part of the list drawn up by Trump in January, through executive action, with which he reclassified a whole series of cartels to declare them terrorist organizations.

At that time, Maduro had already warned that "if Venezuela were attacked," it would declare itself "in armed struggle and a republic in arms." This Thursday, the Minister of Defense reiterated the warning: "Do not make the mistake of militarily attacking Venezuela." Padrino asserted: "We have never seen this deployment of F-35 class aircraft."