Yesterday, at the direction of President Trump, the Department of War conducted a lethal kinetic strike on a vessel being operated by a Designated Terrorist Organization and conducting narco-trafficking in the Eastern Pacific. The vessel was known by our intelligence to be involved in illicit narcotics smuggling, was transiting along a known narco-trafficking transit route, and carrying narcotics. There were two narco-terrorists aboard the vessel during the strike, which was conducted in international waters. Both terrorists were killed and no U.S. forces were harmed in this strike. Narco-terrorists intending to bring poison to our shores, will find no safe harbor anywhere in our hemisphere. Just as Al Qaeda waged war on our homeland, these cartels are waging war on our border and our people. There will be no refuge or forgiveness—only justice.

The U.S. military has carried out another airstrike on an alleged drug cartel vessel on Tuesday night, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced on X. (Screengrab from X) WASHINGTON — The U.S. killed two individuals in a strike on an alleged drug vessel Tuesday night, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced Wednesday. This time the strike came in the Pacific Ocean rather than in the Caribbean Sea. The U.S. military conducted a strike on a vessel being operated by a “designated terrorist organization” in the eastern Pacific, Hegseth said in a post on X. He did not say which organization the individuals were associated with. Both individuals on the boat were killed, and no U.S. forces were harmed in the operation, he said. “Narco-terrorists intending to bring poison to our shores will find no safe harbor anywhere in our hemisphere. There will be no refuge or forgiveness — only justice,” Hegseth said. Hegseth’s post included a 23-second clip of the strike. The latest operation is at least the eighth known strike conducted in the U.S. Southern Command area of responsibility since September. The strikes come following a buildup of maritime forces in the region, including eight surface warships and more than 6,000 sailors and Marines. The operations have killed at least 34 people. Tuesday’s operation comes after two people survived a U.S. strike last Thursday. Trump said Saturday in a post on Truth Social that the survivors would be sent back to their home countries of Ecuador and Colombia for “detention and prosecution.” Before Thursday’s operation, U.S. military strikes against suspected drug vessels had not left any known survivors, and the Trump administration posted to social media short videos of vessels being destroyed. Hegseth posted Sunday about a U.S. strike Friday that killed three people allegedly affiliated with Colombian organization Ejército de Liberación Nacional (ELN) as it operated in international waters. The Trump administration has asserted that drug traffickers are armed combatants threatening the United States, creating justification to use military force. But that assertion has been met with some unease on Capitol Hill. Operations have continued following the announcement last Thursday that Adm. Alvin Holsey, the head of U.S. Southern Command, would retire by the end of the year.

MEXICO CITY — The United States has widened its military campaign against alleged drug traffickers in Latin America, announcing on Wednesday that its forces had struck a boat purportedly smuggling narcotics off the Pacific coast of Colombia. It was the eighth alleged drug vessel bombed by the U.S. in recent weeks, and the first attacked in the Pacific Ocean. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the airstrike killed two people, bringing the death toll in the attacks to 34. He said the vessel was “known by our intelligence” to be carrying narcotics, but did not provide evidence of those claims. In a short video clip posted on X by Hegseth, a small boat carrying some kind of cargo is seen speeding through waves before a massive explosion hits, leaving the vessel drifting on the water in flames. The attack drew swift rebuke from U.S. lawmakers who have criticized the Trump administration’s campaign of secretive strikes. “Another illegal military strike on a boat, this time in the Pacific, broadening the Administration’s deadly campaign to another ocean,” said Sen. Adam Schiff, a Democrat from California. “Once again, there is no detail on who was killed or why.”The latest attack comes amid escalating tensions between President Trump and Colombian President Gustavo Petro, and some observers speculated that it was designed in part to punish Petro for defying Trump.Petro, who has criticized Trump on issues ranging from migration to the war in Gaza, has in recent days accused the U.S. of killing innocent civilians and of using the strikes as pretext to try to push out Venezuela’s leftist authoritarian leader, Nicolás Maduro. He has slammed Trump for not doing more to reduce demand for narcotics in the U.S., which is the world’s top consumer of drugs. After Petro accused the U.S. of murder, saying that an earlier strike had killed a Colombian fisherman in the Caribbean, Trump retorted without evidence that Petro was a “drug dealer” and warned that the U.S. would take unilateral action to combat drug trafficking there. He also vowed to cut aid to Colombia, which has long been one of America’s closest allies in the region, and to impose punishing tariffs on Colombian imports. Since Trump took office in January, he has gone to lengths to paint Latin American drug traffickers as a threat to national security, officially declaring several cartels as terrorist groups and then ordering the Pentagon to use military force against them. Trump, who insists the U.S. is locked in an “armed conflict” with the cartels and has the right to defend itself against them, has deployed thousands of U.S. troops and a small armada of ships and warplanes to the Caribbean. In his social media post, Hegseth compared the alleged drug traffickers to Al Qaeda, the terror group that masterminded the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.“Just as Al Qaeda waged war on our homeland, these cartels are waging war on our border and our people,” Hegseth said. “There will be no refuge or forgiveness — only justice.”U.S. lawmakers, including members of Trump’s Republican Party, have questioned the legality — as well as the effectiveness — of the strikes. Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said this week that he believes the strikes are illegal because only Congress has the authority to declare war. Boats traveling some 2,000 miles south of the U.S. border don’t pose an imminent threat to Americans, he told journalist Piers Morgan. “These are outboard boats that would have to refuel 20 times to reach Miami,” he said.Paul questioned why U.S. officials weren’t first attempting to detain the boats and arrest the suspected smugglers before carrying out lethal strikes. “We don’t just summarily execute people,” he said. “We present evidence and convict them.”Paul is part of a bipartisan group of senators that is planning to force a vote on legislation that would block the U.S. from engaging in hostilities within or against Venezuela without explicit approval from Congress. The measure’s passage is a long shot in the Republican-dominated Senate, but a vote would require senators to take a public stance on Trump’s escalating military campaign.Schiff, who co-introduced the resolution, said the Senate must assert its authority and “stop the United States from being dragged — intentionally or accidentally — into full-fledged war in South America.”Michael Shifter, past president of the Inter-American Dialogue, a Washington research group, said the broadening of the military’s theater to the Pacific may be an effort to address criticism that only a small amount of drugs that reach the U.S. are trafficked through the Caribbean. The Pacific is a major corridor for U.S.-bound illicit drugs, especially Colombia-produced cocaine. Chemical precursors for fentanyl and other synthetic drugs also cross the Pacific from Asia to Mexico.“It may be aimed at trying to strengthen their case, because they’re being questioned a lot on that,” Shifter said, referring to the Trump administration. “The Pacific is where most of the drugs come from.”He said the expanded strikes may increase fears in Mexico — the major conduit for drugs entering the United States. U.S. officials have warned that drone strikes on drug producers or traffickers in Mexico may be coming, even as Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum says her country would treat any unilateral military actions on her territory as “an invasion.”“I’m sure they’re asking themselves in Mexico: ‘Are we next?’” Shifter said. The White House has been more focused on Latin America than previous administrations, in part because its foreign policy is driven by Marco Rubio, Trump’s secretary of State and national security advisor. Rubio, the son of immigrants from Cuba, has a deep interest in the region and has long sought to counter leftists there, especially the authoritarian leaders of Venezuela, Nicaragua and Cuba. Many analysts believe the strikes, the military buildup and Trump’s authorization for the CIA to conduct covert action in Venezuela are signs that the White House hopes to topple Maduro, who leads one of the world’s most oil-rich nations. But that contrasts with Trump’s repeated vow not to interfere in the politics of other nations. “The interventionalists were intervening in complex societies that they did not even understand,” he told an audience in the Middle East earlier this year.Linthicum and McDonnell reported from Mexico City and Ceballos from Washington. More to Read

Bernd Debusmann Jrat the White HouseUS forces have struck a second vessel alleged to be carrying drugs in the Pacific Ocean, amid an escalating US campaign against seaborne drug smuggling.Defence secretary Pete Hegseth said three people on board the vessel were killed and no US forces were harmed. The strike comes about eight hours after the US announced a separate attack on a boat in the Pacific, which killed two people. Both vessels were known to US intelligence and were believed to be carrying drugs along a known trafficking route in international waters, Hegseth added.The strikes marks the eighth and ninth US strike against suspected drug boats since 2 September - but the first in the Pacific. Most attacks have been in the Caribbean Sea. President Donald Trump said he has legal authority to continue bombing boats in international water but said he may go to the US Congress if he decides to expand targets on land."We're allowed to do that, and if we do (it) by land, we may go back to Congress," Trump said to reporters in the Oval Office on Wednesday. He said his administration was "totally prepared" to expand the anti-drug operations on land, which would mark a deep escalation. In the Oval Office with Trump, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio added that "if people want to stop seeing drug boats blow up, stop sending drugs to the United States".Video of the strike appears to show a long, blue speed boat moving through the water before being struck by US ordinance. "Narco-terrorists intending to bring position to our shores will find no safe harbour anywhere in our hemisphere," Hegseth wrote on X. "Just as Al Qaeda wages war on our homeland, these cartels are waging war on our border and our people." "There will be no refuge or forgiveness - only justice," he added. In a leaked memo recently sent to US lawmakers, the Trump administration said it determined it was involved in a "non-international armed conflict" with drug-trafficking organisations.At least 34 people have been killed in the American strikes on alleged drug boats, including a recent strike on a semi-submersible vessel in the Caribbean.Two men survived a strike last week, and were repatriated to Colombia and Ecuador. Ecuador's government later released one man - identified as Andrés Fernando Tufiño - saying there was no evidence of wrongdoing. The other man, from Colombia, reportedly remains hospitalised. US President Donald Trump and administration officials have repeatedly justified the strikes as counter-narcotics measures necessary to fight drug-trafficking organisations, several of which have been designated as terrorist organisations by the US. Citing a defence official, CBS has reported that the strike took place in international waters near Colombia. Speaking in the Oval Office on Wednesday, Trump defended the operations, calling them "a national security problem".News of the strike comes amid rising tensions between the Trump administration and the Colombian government of President Gustavo Petro, whom Trump has characterised as "a thug and a bad guy"."He better watch it or we'll take very serious action against him and his country," Trump said. "He has led his country into a death trap."Read: What's at stake as Trump boat strikes strain US-Colombia allianceOn Sunday, Trump denounced Petro as an "illegal drug leader" who is "strongly encouraging the massive production of drugs, in big and small fields, all over Colombia."Trump added that the US will no longer offer subsidies to Colombia, which has historically been one of its closest allies in Latin America. Both Colombia and nearby Ecuador have significant Pacific coastlines that experts have said are used to funnel drugs north towards the US through Central America and Mexico. US estimates from the Drug Enforcement Agency, or DEA, indicate that the vast majority of cocaine bound for US cities passes through the Pacific. Drug seizures in the Caribbean - where the bulk of confirmed US strikes have so far taken place - account for a relatively small percentage of the total, although US officials have warned it is rising.To date, US officials have offered few details on the identities of those killed in the strikes or what drug trafficking organisations they allegedly belong to.Around 10,000 US troops, as well as dozens of military aircraft and ships, have been deployed to the Caribbean as part of the operation.

The U.S. has struck two alleged drug vessels on the Pacific side of Latin America over the last two days, killing five people, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth confirmed Wednesday. The Trump administration has now carried out nine known strikes against alleged narcotics trafficking boats since last month, leading to at least 37 deaths. The first seven strikes were within the Caribbean Sea — but this week, the strategy broadened to the East Pacific. The first strike took place on Tuesday, with two people killed. A defense official confirmed the vessel was in international waters off of Colombia. A second strike took place on Wednesday, according to Hegseth, killing three more. In a pair of nearly identical X posts announcing the strikes Wednesday, Hegseth said the boats were operated by a "Designated Terrorist Organization" and were "transiting along a known narco-trafficking route" in international waters. He said they were "known by our intelligence to be involved in illicit narcotics smuggling." He did not specify the organization that allegedly operated the boats. Hegseth said no U.S. forces were harmed in the strikes. He also shared videos of the strikes, both of which show vessels moving in the water before they are seemingly hit and engulfed in flames. In the video from Wednesday's strike, bags or parcels appear to be floating in the water after the boat was struck. Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona said Sunday on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan," "We want to keep fentanyl out of the United States, ... but those routes through the Caribbean on boats are predominantly used to bring cocaine to Europe," not to the U.S. And fentanyl tends to be transported to the U.S. "from a different way," Kelly added. The Pentagon has not yet responded to a request for information about the nationalities of the individuals on the boat that was struck Tuesday. Kelly also told "Face the Nation" that when administration officials briefed Congress on the drug vessel strikes, they "had a very hard time explaining to us the rationale, the legal rationale for doing this and the constitutionality of doing it." He said lawmakers were told there is "a secret list of over 20 narco organizations, drug trafficking cartels," but U.S. officials did not share the list with Congress. The Trump administration has told Congress the U.S. is in a "non-international armed conflict" with drug cartels, arguing that the narcotics they smuggle kill tens of thousands of Americans every year, and this constitutes an "armed attack." Two men survived a U.S. strike on a suspected drug-trafficking submersible vessel in the Caribbean last week, and the U.S. repatriated the men, one from Ecuador and one from Colombia. Ecuador released the man, identified as Andrés Fernando Tufiño, after authorities said they had found no evidence that he had committed a crime. The Colombian citizen remains hospitalized after his repatriation. Interior Minister Armando Benedetti said he "arrived with brain trauma, sedated, drugged, breathing with a ventilator." Authorities there said he would face prosecution. Two other men were killed in the strike on the submersible vessel. Meanwhile, the Dominican Republic granted permission to the U.S. military to use its airports for staging operations in support of counternarcotics flights, according to two American officials who spoke to CBS News on Wednesday under conditions of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about ongoing military operations. The U.S. and the Dominican Republic have worked together on countering drug trafficking and other forms of transnational organized crime going back to the mid-1980s. James LaPorta contributed to this report.

For the second time in two days, the Trump administration launched deadly strikes on a vessel suspected of smuggling drugs in the eastern Pacific, expanding its campaign beyond the Caribbean Sea, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said late Wednesday. The strikes this week were the eighth and ninth known boat attacks that U.S. Special Operations forces have conducted since the operation began in early September, and brought the officially acknowledged death toll to 37. Mr. Hegseth did not provide geographic details beyond saying that the attacks had taken place in the eastern Pacific, in international waters. All of the previous seven attacks took place in the Caribbean. A U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive matter, said the first strike in the eastern Pacific was off the coast of Colombia. That strike, late Tuesday, killed two people on the boat, Mr. Hegseth said in a post on X that included video footage of the attack. He said the vessel was “known by our intelligence” to be involved in drug smuggling and was carrying narcotics. The defense secretary announced another on Wednesday evening, which he said was carried out that day and killed three people. On Wednesday, speaking to reporters at the White House, President Trump bragged about the expanded action and suggested future strikes could go beyond targets at sea. “They had one today in the Pacific, and the way I look at it — every time I look — because it is violent and it is very — it’s amazing, the weaponry, you know they have these boats that go 45 to 50 miles an hour in the water, and when you look at the accuracy and the power — look, we have the greatest military in the world,” he said. Mr. Trump falsely asserted that each such destroyed boat saves 25,000 American lives. In reality, about 100,000 Americans die each year from drug overdoses, but most of those deaths are caused by fentanyl, which comes from labs in Mexico. South America produces cocaine. Mr. Trump then suggested that he would soon order strikes against land targets, asserting that his administration’s strikes against boats had driven drug smuggling onto land routes. He added that his administration would “probably go back to Congress and explain exactly what we are doing” before launching those strikes, but insisted that he did not need their permission to act. “We will hit them very hard when they come in by land,” Mr. Trump said of those his administration accuses of drug smuggling. “They haven’t experienced that yet, but now we are totally prepared to do that.” Editors’ Picks Should You ‘Feed a Cold and Starve a Fever’? The Heroine of ‘His Dark Materials’ Is Back. Here’s What You Need to Know. Is Your Dog Peeing on Some of New York’s Best Folk Art? The operation began on Sept. 2, when the military, on President Trump’s orders, began attacking boats believed to be smuggling drugs as if those aboard were enemy combatants in a war rather than criminal suspects. Initially, the focus was on Venezuela. American officials are also weighing whether to intensify an effort to remove that nation’s president, Nicolás Maduro, who was indicted on drug trafficking charges in the United States in 2020 and whom the Trump team calls a cartel leader. But in the interim, the boat attacks have increasingly extended to Colombia, which is a far greater source of narcotics smuggled to the United States than Venezuela. President Gustavo Petro of Colombia has said several strikes killed Colombians, and again accused the United States of murder after the strikes announced on Wednesday. Mr. Trump has said he was cutting off foreign aid to Colombia amid the dispute. The administration has also said that intelligence backs its accusations of the passengers’ identities and what they were doing, but it has not offered evidence. A broad range of outside experts in laws governing the use of armed force have said the campaign is illegal because the military is not permitted to deliberately target civilians — even criminal suspects — who are not directly participating in hostilities. The White House has said the strikes are legal as a matter of self-defense and because Mr. Trump has “determined” that the country is in a formal armed conflict with drug cartels that his team has deemed terrorists. It has not publicly offered a legal theory that explains how to bridge the gap between trafficking an illicit product and responding with organized, armed attacks. Much of the world’s supply of cocaine is produced by three countries in South America — especially Colombia, which has coastlines on both the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean. The Trump administration has said all of its attacks were in international waters. It also described the people aboard each vessel as members of groups designated as terrorist organizations. The administration itself bestowed that designation upon numerous Latin American drug cartels and criminal gangs in the months leading up to the campaign. The legitimacy of that move is contested because drug cartels are motivated by the pursuit of illicit profits, while terrorists, by definition, are motivated by religious or ideological goals. In any case, the law allowing the executive branch to designate foreign groups as terrorists permits tactics like freezing assets, but it does not convey legal authority to kill their members. U.S. officials on Wednesday did not immediately identify any specific group as the target of the latest strikes. The majority of the cocaine smuggled into the United States moves through the Pacific, not the Caribbean, U.S. data shows. But the Trump administration has mostly focused its rhetoric on Venezuela, which only has a coast on the Caribbean. Mr. Trump described initial boat strikes as having killed Venezuelans and members of a Venezuelan gang. But the strikes are causing larger turmoil in the region. Mr. Petro of Colombia has said two strikes, one on Sept. 15 and one on Oct. 3, killed Colombians and accused the United States of murder. Relatives of a 26-year-old from Trinidad and Tobago said he and a neighbor had been killed in an Oct. 14 attack. Citizens of Colombia and yet another country, Ecuador, survived an Oct. 16 strike on a semi-submersible vessel, which Mr. Trump later said had killed two people. The U.S. Navy rescued two survivors and the administration repatriated them, with Mr. Trump saying both would be detained and prosecuted. However, prosecutors in Ecuador declined to charge that man, and instead released him on the grounds that there was no accusation he had committed a crime inside Ecuadorean territory. “Who are we striking?” Representative Jason Crow, a Colorado Democrat on the House Armed Services and Intelligence Committees, asked on Wednesday at a security conference. “If these are narco-terrorists, as Secretary Hegseth reports, then why did we just repatriate two of them back to their country of origin, if they’re such bad guys?” The other survivor has been hospitalized in Colombia with brain trauma and is breathing on a ventilator, Armando Benedetti, Colombia’s minister of the interior, said in a social media post on Saturday night. When he returns to consciousness, Mr. Benedetti said, he will be “processed by the justice system for drug trafficking.” In the seventh strike, on Oct. 17, the military killed three men the Trump administration accused of smuggling drugs for a Marxist insurgent group in Colombia known as the National Liberation Army, or E.L.N., which the State Department designated as terrorist in 1997.

| BREAKING NEWS — Pete Hegseth confirms that the U.S. eliminated two narco-terrorists in the Pacific on Trump's orders and releases video of the operation. "There will be no refuge or forgiveness... only justice," the Secretary of Defense warned.

| ÚLTIMA HORA — Pete Hegseth confirma que EE.UU. eliminó a dos narco-terroristas en el Pacífico por orden de Trump y difunde el video del operativo. “No habrá refugio ni perdón… solo justicia”, advirtió el secretario de Guerra.

The United States extends its extrajudicial attacks against alleged drug-running boats to the Pacific

Estados Unidos extiende al Pacífico sus ataques extrajudiciales contra supuestas ‘narcolanchas’

BREAKING NEWS The War Department conducted a lethal kinetic strike against a vessel operated by a Designated Terrorist Organization and engaged in drug trafficking in the Eastern Pacific.

ÚLTIMA HORA El Departamento de Guerra llevó a cabo un ataque cinético letal contra un buque operado por una Organización Terrorista Designada y que realizaba narcotráfico en el Pacífico Oriental.

#ATTENTION | The Pentagon announced what would be the first bombing of a drug-trafficking vessel in the Pacific. According to Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, the vessel was operated by “a designated terrorist organization engaged in drug trafficking.” In a statement, it was reported that the attack took place in “international waters” and resulted in the deaths of two “narco-terrorists” on board. The Pentagon chief compared the U.S. war against drug cartels to the fight against Al Qaeda. @itsDCastrillon

#ATENCIÓN | El Pentágono anunció lo que sería el primer bombardeo contra una embarcación narcotraficante en el Pacífico. Según el secretario de Guerra, Pete Hegseth, la embarcación era operada por “una organización terrorista designada que se dedicaba al narcotráfico”. En un comunicado, se informó que el ataque se llevó a cabo en “aguas internacionales” y resultó en la muerte de dos “narcoterroristas” que iban a bordo. El jefe del Pentágono comparó la guerra que libra EE. UU. contra los carteles de la droga, con la lucha contra Al Qaeda. @itsDCastrillon

BREAKING NEWS: The United States has confirmed another attack on a drug-carrying vessel, this time in the Pacific. According to the Secretary of Defense, two people on board were killed in the attack, which occurred yesterday in international waters.

ÚLTIMA HORA Estados Unidos confirmó un nuevo ataque contra una embarcación que transportaba droga, pero esta vez en el Pacífico. Según el secretario de guerra, dos personas que viajaban a bordo murieron tras el ataque ocurrido ayer en aguas internacionales.

| BREAKING NEWS: US SECRETARY OF WAR confirms ATTACK on drug boat off the coast of Colombia “We conducted a lethal kinetic strike against a vessel operated by a Designated Terrorist Organization and engaged in drug trafficking in the Eastern Pacific…”

| ÚLTIMA HORA: EL SECRETARIO DE GUERRA DE EEUU confirma ATAQUE a narcolancha frente a Colombia “Hicimos un ataque cinético letal contra un buque operado por una Organización Terrorista Designada y que realizaba narcotráfico en el Pacífico Oriental…”

#Urgent The United States carried out its first attack in the Pacific region, leaving two dead, according to Hegseth. The New York Times reported that the attacked boat had departed from Colombian territory. This brings the total number of attacks to eight and the death toll to 34.

#Urgente Estados Unidos ejecutó por primera vez un ataque en la zona del Pacífico, dejando dos muertos, según reportó Hegseth. El New York Times afirmó que la lancha atacada habría salido de territorio colombiano. Con este hecho, ya son ocho ataques y 34 fallecidos en total.

New details on the US attack on a boat in the Colombian Pacific More details >>> https://tinyurl.com/a9s5ecn6

Nuevos detalles del ataque de Estados Unidos a lancha en el Pacífico colombiano Ampliación >>> https://tinyurl.com/a9s5ecn6

22/10/2025 18:01Updated 22/10/2025 21:37View summaryReading time: 24sArtificial intelligenceExperimental: Automatic summary and analysis performed with Artificial IntelligenceVideo footage shows a vessel in the Caribbean Sea being attacked by the United States in mid-September. Photo EFEA US military attack on a boat in the Caribbean. Photo EFEOther analyses (Experimental)POINTS Information ordered chronologically or logically1. The United States attacked another suspected drug-carrying vessel on Tuesday night, this time on the Pacific side of South America.Original text: “The United States attacked another suspected drug-carrying vessel Tuesday night, this time on the Pacific side of South America, according to two U.S. officials.”2. In the eighth known US attack on a vessel since September 2, between two and three people on board were killed.Original text: “In the eighth known US attack on a vessel since September 2, two to three people on board were killed. The other seven attacks targeted vessels in the Caribbean.”3. Two men survived a US attack on a submarine allegedly linked to drug trafficking in the Caribbean last weekOriginal text: “Two men survived a US attack on a submarine allegedly linked to drug trafficking in the Caribbean last week, and the United States repatriated them, one from Ecuador and the other from Colombia.”4. Two other men died in the attack on the submarineOriginal text: “Two other men died in the attack on the submarine.”5. The White House has declared that the attacks are legal in self-defense and because Trump has 'determined' that the country is in a formal armed conflict with drug cartels that his team considers terroristsOriginal Text: “The White House has declared that the attacks are legal in self-defense and because Trump has 'determined' that the country is in a formal armed conflict with drug cartels that his team considers terrorists.”6. Colombian President Gustavo Petro stated that two attacks, one on September 15 and another on October 3, caused the deaths of Colombians and accused the United States of murder.Texto Original: “El presidente de Colombia, Gustavo Petro, afirmó que dos ataques, uno el 15 de septiembre y otro el 3 de octubre, causaron la muerte de colombianos y acusó a Estados Unidos de asesinato.”DESTACADOS Textuales, testimonios y declaracionesMark Kelly: Queremos mantener el fentanilo fuera de los Estados Unidos, ... pero esas rutas a través del Caribe en barcos se utilizan predominantemente para llevar cocaína a EuropaMark Kelly: les costó mucho explicarnos la justificación, la justificación legal y la constitucionalidad de hacerloArmando Benedetti: llegó con traumatismo craneoencefálico, sedado, drogado y respirando con un respiradorEspecialistas legales externos: Una amplia gama de especialistas legales externos en leyes que rigen el uso de la fuerza armada han dicho que la campaña es ilegal porque a los militares no se les permite atacar deliberadamente a civiles, incluso a sospechosos criminales, que no participan directamente en las hostilidadesFuente: EFE, Clarín y The New York Times: Trump ha autorizado las operaciones de la CIA en Venezuela, y el gobierno está considerando ataques terrestres mientras algunos de sus asesores presionan para derrocar al Sr. MaduroGustavo Petro: El presidente de Colombia, Gustavo Petro, afirmó que dos ataques, uno el 15 de septiembre y otro el 3 de octubre, causaron la muerte de colombianos y acusó a Estados Unidos de asesinatoDATOS Tabla con cifras extraídas del originalAtaques a EmbarcacionesDescripciónValorCantidad de ataques estadounidenses conocidos contra embarcaciones desde el 2 de septiembre8Cantidad de hombres que sobrevivieron a un ataque estadounidense contra un submarino presuntamente relacionado con el narcotráfico en el Caribe la semana pasada2Cantidad de hombres que murieron en el ataque al sumergible2Víctimas de AtaquesDescripciónValorCantidad de personas que han muerto en ataques estadounidenses contra supuestos barcos narcotraficantes34Cantidad de personas que murieron en un ataque el 14 de octubre2Cantidad de personas que murieron en el ataque del 15 de septiembre2Cantidad de personas que murieron en el ataque del 3 de octubre3Muertes por SobredosisDescripciónValorCantidad de estadounidenses que mueren cada año por sobredosis de drogas100.000Acusaciones de NarcotráficoDescripciónValorCantidad de organizaciones narcotraficantes y cárteles del narcotráfico en una lista secreta20Año en el que Nicolás Maduro fue acusado de narcotráfico en Estados Unidos2020FAQ Información como preguntas frecuentes1. ¿Cuántas personas murieron en el ataque al supuesto barco con drogas en el Pacífico?Entre dos y tres personas.2. ¿Cuántas personas han muerto en los ataques estadounidenses contra supuestos barcos narcotraficantes?Al menos 34 personas.3. ¿Quién declaró que Estados Unidos se encuentra en un conflicto armado no internacional con los cárteles de la droga?La administración Trump.4. ¿Por qué la administración Trump argumenta que los ataques son legales?En defensa propia y porque Trump ha 'determinado' que el país se encuentra en un conflicto armado formal con cárteles de la droga.5. ¿Cuál es la justificación que la administración ha dado para los ataques a los narcotraficantes?Argumentan que los narcóticos que contrabandean matan a decenas de miles de estadounidenses cada año, lo que constituye un 'ataque armado'.6. ¿Por qué la campaña de ataques a supuestos barcos narcotraficantes ha sido criticada?Porque a los militares no se les permite atacar deliberadamente a civiles, incluso a sospechosos criminales, que no participan directamente en las hostilidades.7. ¿Cuál es la principal fuente de cocaína que ingresa de contrabando a Estados Unidos?El Pacífico.8. ¿Quién es considerado por el equipo de Trump como líder de un cártel de la droga?Nicolás Maduro, presidente de Venezuela.9. ¿Qué país tiene costas tanto en el mar Caribe como en el océano Pacífico?Colombia.10. ¿Qué país tiene costas solo en el Caribe y ha sido objeto de operaciones de la CIA por parte de Estados Unidos?Venezuela.GLOSARIO Lista de términosPalabras clavePalabraSignificadoCaribeRegion made up of the Caribbean Sea and the islands that surround it.CocaineCentral nervous system stimulant, extracted from coca leaves.FentanylPowerful opiate analgesic, used illegally as a recreational drug.Drug traffickerPerson who engages in illegal drug trafficking.PeacefulOcean located between Asia and Oceania to the east, and America to the west.Specific termsWordMeaningDrug cartelsCriminal organizations dedicated to drug trafficking.PentagonHeadquarters of the United States Department of Defense.SenatorMember of the Senate, one of the two chambers of the United States Congress.SubmarineVessel capable of navigating underwater.Acronyms and AbbreviationsWordMeaningINCUnited States Central Intelligence Agency.USAUSA.Region-specific termsWordMeaningGustavo PetroColombian politician, president of Colombia between 2022 and 2026.Nicolás MaduroPresident of Venezuela since 2013.Ambiguous or polysemous termsWordMeaningStrokeIt can refer to an act of aggression or a defensive military action.TrafficIt can refer to the illegal movement of drugs or the regular transport of goods and people.The United States attacked another suspected drug-carrying vessel Tuesday night , this time on the Pacific side of South America, according to two U.S. officials.In the eighth known US attack on a vessel since September 2, two to three people on board were killed. The other seven attacks targeted vessels in the Caribbean.Democratic Senator Mark Kelly of Arizona said Sunday on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan": "We want to keep fentanyl out of the United States, ... but those routes through the Caribbean on ships are predominantly used to get cocaine to Europe," not to the U.S. And fentanyl tends to get transported to the U.S. "in a different way," Kelly added.The Pentagon has not yet responded to a request for information about the nationalities of the people on the ship.Kelly also told "Face the Nation" that when administration officials briefed Congress about the attacks on drug traffickers, "they had a hard time explaining to us the rationale, the legal justification, and the constitutionality of doing it ." He added that lawmakers were informed of the existence of a secret list of more than 20 drug trafficking organizations and cartels, but that U.S. officials did not share the list with Congress.A US military attack on a boat in the Caribbean. Photo EFEAt least 34 people have died in US attacks on suspected drug-trafficking ships. The Trump administration has declared to Congress that the United States is engaged in a "non-international armed conflict" with drug cartels, arguing that the narcotics they smuggle kill tens of thousands of Americans each year, constituting an "armed attack."Two men survived a U.S. attack on a submarine allegedly linked to drug trafficking in the Caribbean last week, and the United States repatriated them, one from Ecuador and the other from Colombia . Ecuador released the man, identified as Andrés Fernando Tufiño, after authorities declared they found no evidence he had committed a crime.The Colombian citizen remains hospitalized after his repatriation. Interior Minister Armando Benedetti stated that he "arrived with a traumatic brain injury, sedated, drugged, and on a ventilator." Local authorities indicated he would be prosecuted. Two other men died in the attack on the submarine.US authorities did not immediately identify on Wednesday the group they accused of transporting drugs on the boat that rammed off the Colombian coast.A wide range of outside legal specialists in laws governing the use of armed force have said the campaign is illegal because the military is not allowed to deliberately target civilians , including criminal suspects, who are not directly involved in hostilities.The White House has declared the attacks legal in self-defense and because Trump has "determined" that the country is in a formal armed conflict with drug cartels that his team considers terrorists. It has not publicly offered a legal theory explaining how to bridge the gap between trafficking an illicit product and organized armed attacks.The United States announced that it sank another ship carrying "narco-terrorists" near Venezuela.All six people on board died. This is the fifth attack of its kind in the Caribbean.0 seconds of 37 secondsVolume 0%VideoThe United States announced that it sank another ship carrying "narco-terrorists" near Venezuela.The administration has indicated that approximately 100,000 Americans die each year from drug overdoses . However, the increase in overdoses is due to fentanyl, which originates in Mexico. And South America is a source of cocaine. Much of the world's supply of that drug is produced in three countries in the region, especially Colombia, which has coastlines on both the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean.Most of the cocaine smuggled into the United States travels through the Pacific, not the Caribbean, according to U.S. data. However, the Trump administration has focused its rhetoric on Venezuela and its president, Nicolás Maduro, who was indicted on drug trafficking charges in the United States in 2020 and whom the Trump team considers the leader of a cartel.Trump has authorized CIA operations in Venezuela, and the administration is considering ground strikes as some of his advisors push to oust Mr. Maduro. Venezuela has only a Caribbean coastline, and Trump described the initial maritime strikes as a tragedy that resulted in the deaths of Venezuelans and members of a Venezuelan gang.But the attacks are causing further unrest in the region. Colombian President Gustavo Petro said that two attacks, one on September 15 and another on October 3, resulted in the deaths of Colombians and accused the United States of murder. Relatives of a 26-year-old man from Trinidad and Tobago said he and a neighbor were killed in an attack on October 14.Source: EFE, Clarín and The New York TimesPBReceive all the news, coverage, stories and analysis from our specialized journalists directly to your email.I WANT TO RECEIVE ITFeatured newsArgentine scientists successfully use a common cold virus against one of the most common types of cancerMel Brizuela revealed that she underwent an anoplasty: what the surgery involvesANMAT recalled seven coffees of different brands from the market due to serious irregularitiesFor fans only: What does AC/DC mean and why did the band choose that name?Who's who behind the clubs that benefited from the AFA's promotions and relegations in Argentine footballActor Jorge Lorenzo, the fearsome prison guard from El Marginal, died at the age of 66.You might be interested inNotebooks of Bribes Case, LIVE: the second hearing of the trial, with Cristina Kirchner and other former officials accused of corruptionLatin Grammy Awards 2025: What time is it and how to watch the ceremony, the red carpet and the shows on November 13Dollar today and blue dollar, LIVE: what is the official rate and what is the price of the parallel rate this Thursday, November 13, minute by minuteCaputo's secret reform: changes to the simplified tax system, self-employed workers, income tax, and a new employment regimeJulio de Vido appeared in Comodoro Py and was detained to serve his sentence for the Once train tragedy.Mercury retrograde has already begun: fire and water rituals to harness the energyClarín SelectionThe suggestive absences from the PRO summit of two deputies who flirt with La Libertad AvanzaA multi-million dollar claim linked to Francisco de Narváez's brother could once again halt the sale of CarrefourThe government told business owners that it is considering eliminating the simplified tax system.Latest newsMost read by subscribers1ANMAT recalled seven coffees of different brands from the market due to serious irregularities2 Juan Manuel BarcaThe government told business owners that it is considering eliminating the simplified tax system.3Raging fire at Zurich building in Retiro: 200 evacuated4Notebooks Case: Cristina Kirchner says the repentant witnesses were tortured5 Javier FirpoThe neighborhood where the Brazilian woman was attacked is riddled with divisions: "They are unpredictable and dangerous."Featured videos China Suárez will appear on Moria Casán's show Mario Pergolini, on the interview with China Suárez The video in which Cristina says that the repentant witnesses were tortured

GÜIRIA, Venezuela (AP) — One was a fisherman struggling to eke out a living on $100 a month. Another was a career criminal. A third was a former military cadet. And a fourth was a down-on-his-luck bus driver. The men had little in common beyond their Venezuelan seaside hometowns and the fact all four were among the more than 60 people killed since early September when the U.S. military began attacking boats that the Trump administration alleges were smuggling drugs. President Donald Trump and top U.S. officials have alleged the craft were being operated by narco-terrorists and cartel members bound with deadly drugs for American communities. One mother describes the “confusion and anguish” of losing her son, who is believed to have been killed in one of the boats targeted by the U.S. military. (AP video Juan Arraez) The Associated Press learned the identities of four of the men – and pieced together details about at least five others – who were slain, providing the first detailed account of those who died in the strikes. In dozens of interviews in villages on Venezuela’s breathtaking northeastern coast, from which some of the boats departed, residents and relatives said the dead men had indeed been running drugs but were not narco-terrorists or leaders of a cartel or gang. Most of the nine men were crewing such craft for the first or second time, making at least $500 per trip, residents and relatives said. They were laborers, a fisherman, a motorcycle taxi driver. Two were low-level career criminals. One was a well-known local crime boss who contracted out his smuggling services to traffickers. The men lived on the Paria Peninsula, in mostly unpainted cinderblock homes that can go weeks without water service and regularly lose power for several hours a day. They awoke to panoramic views of a national park’s tropical forests, the Gulf of Paria’s shallows and the Caribbean’s sparkling sapphire waters. When the time came for their drug runs, they boarded open-hulled fishing skiffs that relied on powerful outboard motors to haul their drugs to nearby Trinidad and other islands. The residents and relatives interviewed by the AP requested anonymity out of fear of reprisals from drug smugglers, the Venezuelan government or the Trump administration. They said they were incensed that the men were killed without due process. In the past, their boats would have been interdicted by the U.S. authorities and the crewmen charged with federal crimes, affording them a day in court. The U.S. government “should have stopped them,” a man’s relative said.It has been difficult for relatives to learn much about their dead loved ones because criminal gangs and the Venezuelan government have long repressed the flow of information in the region. Venezuelan officials have blasted the U.S. government over the strikes, and the nation’s ambassador to the U.N. called the attacks “extrajudicial executions.” They have also steadfastly denied that drug traffickers operate in the country and have yet to acknowledge that any of its citizens have been killed in boat strikes. Spokespeople for Venezuela’s government did not respond to a request for comment.The Trump administration has justified the strikes by declaring drug cartels to be “ unlawful combatants ” and said the U.S. is now in an “armed conflict” with them. Trump has said each sunken boat has saved 25,000 American lives, presumably from overdoses. The boats, however, appear to have been transporting cocaine, not the far more deadly synthetic opioids that kill tens of thousands of Americans each year. Sean Parnell, the Pentagon’s chief spokesman, said in a statement to the AP that the Defense Department has “consistently said that our intelligence did indeed confirm that the individuals involved in these drug operations were narco-terrorists, and we stand by that assessment.”So far, the U.S. military has blown up 17 vessels, killing more than 60 people. Nine of the craft were targeted in the Caribbean, and at least three of those had departed from Venezuela, according to the Trump administration. The military is striking the boats at the same time the administration is applying increasing pressure on Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. The Justice Department doubled a reward for his arrest to $50 million, and the U.S. military has built up an unusually large force in the Caribbean Sea and the waters off Venezuela and has flown pairs of supersonic, heavy bombers along the country’s coast. Relatives and acquaintances said they have confirmed the deaths through word-of-mouth and inexplicit social media posts that sought to convey information about the dead men without drawing the attention of Venezuelan authorities. They have also made what they described as reasonable deductions: The men have not returned phone calls or texts in weeks, or reached out to say they were OK; Venezuelan authorities, residents said, have also searched some of the homes of the dead men. “I want an answer, but who can I ask?” said a relative of one of the men. “I can’t say anything.”The fisherman (AP Illustration / Peter Hamlin) A native of Güiria, a village on the southeast side of the peninsula, Robert Sánchez dropped out of school as a teenager and like many others in the region became a fisherman like his father, according to friends and relatives. The 42-year-old was considered among the peninsula’s best pilots, they said, having spent the better part of three decades mastering the area’s currents and winds, so much so he could navigate the waters at night without instruments. As part of hired crews, the father of four spent his days fishing for snapper, kingfish and dogfish. The fisherman wanted to save enough money to buy a 75-horsepower boat engine so he could operate his own boat and not work for others. It was a dream Sánchez knew he was likely to never realize, relatives said: Most of his income — about $100 a month — went to feed his children.He was not alone in that situation. The peninsula is part of Sucre state, one of Venezuela’s poorest. Sucre was once home to several fish processing plants, an auto assembly plant and a large public university, all of which offered well-paying jobs. Most have shuttered. The peninsula is dotted by the unfulfilled promises of 26 years of a self-described socialist government, including an abandoned shipyard and the rusted infrastructure meant for a natural gas complex. With its proximity to the Caribbean Sea, the area is a popular transit hub for cocaine making its way from Colombia to Trinidad and other Caribbean islands before heading to Europe. Colombian cocaine destined for the U.S. is generally smuggled out of Colombia through the Pacific coast. The larger economic pressures — and Sánchez’s goal of owning a boat engine — are what pushed the fisherman to accept an offer to help traffickers navigate the tricky waters he knew so well, friends and relatives said. Sánchez had just finished offloading a day’s catch last month when he told his mother he would be taking a short trip and would see her in a couple of days. They had no idea where he was going. After seeing clips on social media that mentioned his death, relatives broke the news to his mother, but not until after ensuring she had taken her blood pressure medication. Sánchez’s youngest son, a third grader, could not accept for days that his father was gone. He kept asking adults if his father could have survived the explosion, noting he might still be at sea.No, the adults told the boy. His father was gone. One of the first to die (AP Illustration / Peter Hamlin) Luis “Che” Martínez was killed in the first strike. A burly 60-year-old, Martínez was a longtime local crime boss, and he made most of his living smuggling drugs and people across borders, according to several people who knew him. He had been jailed by Venezuelan authorities on human-trafficking charges after a boat he had operated capsized in December 2020, killing about two dozen people, law enforcement officials said at the time. Among those who died in the accident were two of his sons and a granddaughter, relatives told the AP. The AP was not able to determine the disposition of his criminal case, but Martínez was eventually released from custody and returned to smuggling people and drugs, according to acquaintances. Though they detested what he did for a living — and the control Martínez and similar criminals exerted over their villages — several residents said they appreciated how Martínez contributed annually to the town’s festival of the Virgin of the Valley, the patroness of fishermen, and he spent lavishly in local shops and restaurants. He also bet heavily on cockfights, a popular pastime, a bird breeder said. Martínez was killed, a relative and several acquaintances said, in the first known U.S. strike, which took place Sept. 2. Trump quickly took to social media to claim the vessel had departed from Venezuela and had been carrying drugs. The 11-man crew, the president said, had been members of the Tren de Aragua gang. He said all of the men were killed and also posted a short video clip of a small vessel appearing to explode in flames.Martínez’s relatives said they did not believe the underworld figure was a member of that gang. They said they have been provided no information from the Venezuelan government about his fate. They figured it out when they came across a photo of a body that had washed ashore in Trinidad. The photo had been shared on social media and messaging apps and depicted a badly mutilated body. The people familiar with Martínez said they knew instantly the stout corpse was Martínez because, on his left wrist, was strapped one of his most treasured belongings: an ostentatious watch. The former cadet and bus driver (AP Illustration / Peter Hamlin) Dushak Milovcic, 24, was drawn to crime by the adrenaline rush and money, so much that he dropped out of the country’s National Guard Academy, according to those who knew him. He started as a lookout for smugglers, they said. Though he had no experience at sea, he eventually won a promotion to the more lucrative and coveted jobs on drug-running boats.It’s not clear how many trips he had undertaken before he was killed last month. Juan Carlos “El Guaramero” Fuentes had operated a transit bus for several years but was facing dire financial circumstances when it had broken down. The government had been unable — or unwilling — to fix it. That meant he was losing money because bus drivers in Venezuela typically pocket a portion of the fares, making it nearly impossible for him to feed and clothe his family. (AP Illustration / Peter Hamlin) Villagers said they were not surprised that Fuentes, who had no nautical experience, turned to smuggling to make ends meet. The higher-level traffickers who typically crewed such boats had been staying ashore to avoid being targeted by U.S. missiles. In their place, villagers said, they had been increasingly hiring novices like Fuentes. Fuentes told friends he had been nervous about his first smuggling run, knowing it would be filled with risks from weather, rival gangs, even the U.S. military. The September trip had gone surprisingly smoothly, he told friends, and he readily agreed to join another crew. Fuentes was killed in a missile strike last month, friends said, the precise one unknown. Dotted Line with Center Square —-Konstantin Toropin contributed from Washington.—This story was supported by funding from the Walton Family Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.—-Contact the AP’s global investigative team at Investigative@ap.org or https://www.ap.org/tips/