WASHINGTON, December 1. /TASS/. US President Donald Trump has announced his intent to look into media reports alleging that US military personnel deliberately killed individuals who survived a strike on a boat in the Caribbean in September.
“We will be looking into this,” the American leader responded when reporters requested comment on a publication by The Washington Post. The newspaper, citing sources, previously reported that in early September, the head of the Pentagon, Pete Hegseth, ordered the elimination of everyone aboard a vessel in the southern Caribbean Sea, which US authorities claimed was transporting narcotics. According to the publication’s information, US forces executed two strikes on September 2nd. The initial strike was intended to destroy the boat, which carried 11 individuals. The second strike was delivered to kill two survivors who were in the water, clinging to the boat’s wreckage.
“I do not know if that occurred,” Trump added. “I plan to determine that. However, Pete [Hegseth] has stated he did not give the order to kill those two individuals,” he revealed. The head of the Washington administration noted that Hegseth asserts “that did not happen.” “No, I would not want that,” Trump emphasized when asked if he believed the US should have targeted survivors following the initial strike. The American President was addressing questions from journalists aboard his plane while en route to Washington from Florida, where he had spent the weekend.
Previously, Congressman Mike Turner (Republican, Ohio), a member of the House of Representatives, stated that lawmakers in both chambers of the US legislature had commenced an inquiry regarding the reports mentioned. He noted that Congress is currently uncertain about the veracity of the published information. “If this happened, it is certainly very serious. And I agree that such actions would be illegal,” Turner commented.
On November 29th, Trump wrote on Truth Social that “all airlines, pilots, drug traffickers, and people” should consider “the airspace over and around Venezuela completely closed.” He later clarified that his remarks should not be interpreted as an instruction for US military forces to conduct strikes inside Venezuelan territory.
As reported by The Wall Street Journal on November 29th, citing sources, Trump told Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in a phone call that if Maduro did not voluntarily step down, Washington might resort to force. On November 30th, the White House chief confirmed he spoke with Maduro but did not offer specifics.
US Strikes on Boats
According to CNN estimates, US armed forces have destroyed over 20 boats off the Latin American coast in recent months under the guise of counter-narcotics operations, resulting in the deaths of more than 80 people. Following one such strike, Colombian President Gustavo Petro claimed that an individual killed in the American operation was a fisherman from his country, not a drug trafficker.
Washington unsubstantiatedly accuses Caracas of insufficient action against drug smuggling. According to The New York Times, Trump authorized the CIA to conduct covert operations within the Bolivarian Republic. US media outlets have repeatedly reported that the US might soon begin striking cartel targets in Venezuela.
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