MIAMI.- A new US attack in the Caribbean expanded the list of lethal operations against alleged drug trafficking vessels that Washington links to organizations designated as terrorists.
The Southern Command confirmed that the November 10by order of Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, the Joint Task Force Southern Spear (“Lanza del Sur”) executed “a lethal kinetic attack against a vessel operated by a Designated Terrorist Organization.”
As published by the institution in its official account on
The attack occurred in international waters of the Caribbean Sea and left four men deaddescribed by the Southern Command as “narcoterrorists.”
Lethal U.S. operations expanding
The attack is part of a series of naval bombings that have escalated since September, amid what the Trump administration describes as a new stage of the “war on narcoterrorists” in the hemisphere.
This latest incident coincides with reports published by CBS News and The New York Timeswhich cited a Department of Defense official and placed the attack between Monday and Wednesday of this week.
According to AFP, The United States has already destroyed 21 vesselswith a toll of at least 80 dead, in operations aimed at maritime routes that Washington links to networks in Venezuela and Colombia.
From the September 2when the United States announced the first attack against a vessel that, according to Washington, was transporting eleven members of the Aragua Train from Venezuela, the escalation has spread to the Caribbean and the Pacific, with vessels attributed to Venezuelan, Colombian and transnational organizations.
Chronology of attacks:
-
September 15: second attack, three Venezuelans dead.
-
September 19: third attack; three people dead.
-
October 3: fourth attack announced by Hegseth; four dead.
-
October 14: fifth attack near Venezuelan coasts; six dead.
-
October 16: attack on a submarine; two deceased and two survivors without judicial process.
- October 17: Attack on a seventh boat and links it to the Colombian guerrilla of the National Liberation Army (ELN), with three people dead.
-
October 21 and 22: attacks in the Pacific, linked by Washington to the ELN; five dead in total.
- October 24: tenth attack against a boat that was allegedly operated by the Aragua Train; six people died.
-
October 28: the deadliest attack; 14 dead in four boats.
- October 29: An attack on a boat in the Pacific killed four people.
-
November 1, 4, 6 and 9: four additional operations with a balance of eleven deaths.
Rising tensions
With the attack confirmed on November 10, the accumulated figure for the month continues to rise and reflects a pattern of almost daily actions.
The Trump administration maintains that the operations seek to “defend the United States” and prevent narcotics from reaching US territory, while directly accusing the regime of Nicolás Maduro and the government of Gustavo Petro of protecting or participating in drug trafficking networks.
This Friday, the Republican president assured that he has already defined his next step towards Venezuela, although he avoided revealing details, in the midst of the largest US military deployment in the Caribbean in recent years and the beginning of Operation Southern Spear, directed against drug cartels in the hemisphere.
