Hegseth announces latest strike on boat near Venezuela he says was
trafficking drugs
[October 04, 2025]
By KONSTANTIN TOROPIN and LISA MASCARO
WASHINGTON (AP) — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Friday that he
ordered another strike on a small boat he accused of carrying drugs in
the waters off Venezuela, expanding what the Trump administration has
declared is an “armed conflict” with cartels.
In a post on social media, Hegseth asserted that the “vessel was
trafficking narcotics" and those aboard were “narco-terrorists.” He said
the strike killed four men but offered no details on who they were or
what group they belonged to, following the U.S. designation of several
Latin American cartels as foreign terrorist organizations.
President Donald Trump said in his own social media post that the boat
was “loaded with enough drugs to kill 25 TO 50 THOUSAND PEOPLE” and
implied it was “entering American Territory” while off the coast of
Venezuela.
It is the fourth deadly strike in the Caribbean and the latest since
revelations that Trump told lawmakers he was treating drug traffickers
as unlawful combatants and military force was required to combat them.
That assertion of presidential war powers sets the stage for expanded
action and raises questions about how far the administration will go
without sign-off from Congress.
“Blowing them up without knowing who’s on the boat is a terrible policy,
and it should end,” said Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, a
consistent and harsh critic of the U.S. strikes.
The Trump administration laid out its justification for the strikes in a
memo obtained by The Associated Press this week.
“The President determined that the United States is in a
non-international armed conflict with these designated terrorist
organizations,” according to the memo sent to Congress. Trump directed
the Pentagon to “conduct operations against them pursuant to the law of
armed conflict,” the document says.
Sen. Jim Risch, Republican chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations
Committee, said the president had the authority to go after the cartels
without further authorization from Congress under “his general powers
under the Constitution as the commander in chief.”
“What could be a bigger defense of this country than keeping out this
poison that’s killing thousands of Americans every year?” Risch said
Friday.
Paul said only Congress has the authority to declare war and
characterized the memo as “a way to pretend like” the administration is
notifying lawmakers with a justification for the strikes.
“If they want to declare war, come to Congress and say they want to
declare war,” he told the AP. “But you can’t just say it yourself and
say, Oh, well, we sent them a note and now we’re at war with unnamed
people who we won’t even identify before we kill.”
Hours after Hegseth announced the latest strike, Venezuelan Vice
President Delcy Rodríguez said the “warlike aggression” by the U.S.
affects the greater Caribbean, not just Venezuela.
“We see it and feel it, as they murder our countries’ citizens in
summary extrajudicial executions,” she said during a conference in
Venezuela’s capital, Caracas, focused on colonialism in the West.
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Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth speaks to senior military leaders
at Marine Corps Base Quantico, Tuesday, Sept. 30, 2025 in Quantico,
Va. (Andrew Harnik/Pool via AP)
Meanwhile, President Nicolás Maduro did not explicitly mention the
strikes, but he told conference attendees that his country is ready
to defend itself.
“Venezuela has the right to peace, to sovereignty, to existence, and
no empire in this world can take it away,” he said. “And if it is
necessary to move from an unarmed struggle to an armed struggle,
this people will do so. … Colonialism no more.”
Colombian President Gustavo Petro, a leftist leader who has clashed
with the Trump administration, accused the U.S. of committing
“murder” and urged the victims’ families to “join forces.”
“There are no narco-terrorists on the boats,” he posted on X after
the strike was announced. “Drug traffickers live in the U.S., Europe
and Dubai. On that boat are poor Caribbean youth.”
Video of Friday's strike posted online showed a small boat moving in
open water when it suddenly explodes, with water splashing all
around it. As the smoke from the explosion clears, the boat is
visible, consumed with flames, floating motionless on the water.
With it, at least three of the strikes have now been carried out on
vessels that U.S. officials said had originated from Venezuela. The
strikes followed a buildup of U.S. maritime forces in the Caribbean
unlike any seen in recent times.
The Navy’s presence in the region — eight warships with over 5,000
sailors and Marines — has been pretty stable for weeks, according to
two defense officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to
discuss ongoing operations.
In a post about the first strike last month, Trump claimed the
vessel was carrying members of the Tren de Aragua gang. Posts about
all the subsequent strikes, including Friday’s, have not provided
any details about what organizations have been targeted. The four
strikes have killed 21 people, the administration says.
Pentagon officials who briefed senators on the strikes this week
could not provide a list of the designated terrorist organizations
at the center of the conflict.
Officials in the Pentagon, when asked for more details about the
strike, referred The Associated Press back to Hegseth’s post.
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AP writer Regina Garcia Cano in Caracas, Venezuela, contributed to
this report.
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