As reported by the New York Times (Eric Schmitt, Helene Cooper, Alan Feuer, Charlie Savage, and Edward Wong, Trump Administration Says Boat Strike Is Start of Campaign Against Venezuelan Cartels, New York Times, Sept. 3, 2025):
"The Trump administration declared the start of a new and potentially violent campaign against Venezuelan cartels on Wednesday, defending a deadly U.S. military strike on a boat that officials said was carrying drugs even as specialists in the law of war questioned the legality of the attack.
"The U.S. Navy has long intercepted and boarded ships suspected of smuggling drugs in international waters, typically with a Coast Guard officer temporarily in charge to invoke law enforcement authority. Tuesday’s direct attack in the Caribbean was a marked departure from that decades-long approach.
"The administration has said 11 people were aboard the vessel. It was unclear whether they were given a chance to surrender before the United States attacked."
According to the Washington Office on Latin America (Statement: Lethal U.S. military strike on alleged drug traffickers sets a dangerous precedent in the “war on drugs,” WOLA, Sept. 3, 2025):
"Ascertaining the legitimacy and legality of the use of force in this case will depend on the factual answers to numerous questions. It is not clear whether the U.S. military forces deployed to the southern Caribbean tried to contact the people aboard the boat, tried to board the boat, fired warning shots, or tried to disable the engine by firing on a part of the boat where humans were not present. U.S. authorities should also address the question of whether there is any evidence that those aboard were threatening U.S. personnel in a way that would justify using lethal force in self-defense.
"If the evidence shows that the U.S. military, apparently on the orders of President Trump, engaged in the unlawful use of force that caused the deaths of 11 people in international waters, those responsible, especially at the political and military command levels, must be held accountable in the U.S. criminal justice system and under the Uniform Code of Military Justice. The U.S. Congress should also require the Administration to disclose all the relevant facts."