Experts and lawmakers are criticizing the Trump administration for a double strike on an alleged Venezuelan drug smuggling vessel, as Pete Hegseth, the U.S. Secretary of War, spoke on the September incident for the first time Tuesday.
The ship was struck once, killing 11 people, who Trump declared to be part of a terrorist group. A second strike was ordered on the ship, ending the lives of two more passengers who were hanging on to the burning vessel. This raised continuous questions from the press as well as members of Congress about the legality of this kind of action in international waters.
One USC Marshall School of Business professor, who is Venezuelan, believes the administration was wrong. Marco Aponte–Moreno, who specializes in international negotiations, has closely followed U.S.-Venezuelan relations since the strikes first started three months ago.
“These are illegal strikes in the sense that they are happening in international waters. They say they have the intelligence that these are drug traffickers, but we don’t really know if that’s the case or not,” Moreno said.
In a Cabinet meeting Tuesday, President Trump addressed the double strike on an alleged Venezuelan drug smuggling vessel. The strikes occurred in early September, but until this past Sunday, they had not been fully acknowledged by the administration or President Trump himself.
During the cabinet meeting, Trump was questioned by a reporter regarding the logistics of the attack. The reporter specifically asked if the president knew of the second strike on the ship, as well as who the strike was targeting.
“Every boat that you see get blown up, we save 25,000, on average, lives. They’ve been sending enough of this horrible fentanyl… to kill our entire nation,” Trump said. “As far as the attack is concerned… I didn’t know anything about the second strike… I wasn’t involved in it, I knew they took out a boat.”
Addressing doubts regarding the ship’s activities, Trump said, “A lot of the press would like to say… they’re not, maybe, drugs…. [but] who has five engines on the back of a boat, going in weird directions, and loaded up with lots of white containers, bags of things?”
After Trump spoke on his lack of knowledge concerning the issue, Hesgeth weighed in regarding the Department of Defense’s proof of the boats’ cartel affiliation.
“I wish everybody could be in the room watching our professionals… [and] the evidence-based way that we’re able to, with sources and methods we can’t reveal here, make sure that every one of those drug boats is tied to a designated terrorist organization, what they’re carrying,” Hesgeth said.
Hesgeth continued to say he was not present when the decision was made to strike again and “eliminate the threat,” but that he felt it was an authorized and correct decision.
The United Nations and various U.S. lawmakers have called for U.S. restraint in the Caribbean region, with many critics classifying the action as a war crime.
According to the U.N., war crimes include “violations of international humanitarian law whose perpetrators incur individual criminal responsibility under international law.” Unlike crimes against humanity, war crimes “always take place in the context of an armed conflict, whether international or not.” Examples of war crimes include murder, torture or intentional attacks on civilians.
“I think the second strike, where they basically bombed the boat, and then after that, they realized there were some survivors, so they bombed again to kill them, can be interpreted and classified as a war crime,” Moreno said.
These strikes and the manner in which Congress has handled them have escalated tensions between the U.S. and Venezuela. Nicholas Maduro has been the president of Venezuela since 2013. However, according to the U.S. Department of State website, over 50 countries, including the United States, have refused to recognize Maduro as the country’s head of state. Maduro declared himself the winner of Venezuela’s 2024 election despite evidence suggesting the election results were rigged.
Moreno views these dynamics as significant contributors to U.S. aggression, though he remains hopeful that peace can be found.
“I believe that if enough pressure is exercised [by the Trump administration] and the Maduro regime breaks from within and Maduro leaves, the relationship between the U.S. and Venezuela will probably be very amicable,” Moreno said.