Illustrative image. (U.S. Army)
The United States military struck another drug trafficking boat in the eastern Pacific Ocean on December 17, as President Donald Trump accused Venezuela of illegally taking away “energy rights” from American companies.
The “lethal kinetic strike” was carried out upon orders from Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, the U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) said in a statement posted to X.
“Intelligence confirmed that the vessel was transiting along a known narco-trafficking route in the Eastern Pacific and was engaged in narco-trafficking operations. A total of four male narco-terrorists were killed, and no U.S. military forces were harmed,” the statement reads.
The strikes brought the number of alleged drug boats hit by SOUTHCOM since the U.S. military began its campaign against drug cartels in the Eastern Pacific and the Caribbean Sea to 26. The campaign has so far claimed the lives of at least 99 people, all alleged drug traffickers.
The Trump administration has been using the military campaign, which began in September, as a mean to pressure Venezuela.
Escalation against the country began earlier in October, when the U.S. doubled the reward for the arrest of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro to $50 million on drug trafficking charges.
Since then, the U.S. has deployed a large naval force led by its latest aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R. Ford, in the SOUTHCOM area of responsibility.
The escalation reached a new level on December 16, when Trump ordered a naval blockade of all oil tankers, which are under U.S. sanctions, entering and leaving Venezuelan ports. The country’s government called the move a “grotesque threat” that was aimed at “stealing the riches that belong to our homeland”.
A week earlier, the U.S. seized the Skipper oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela. Trump later told reporters “I assume we’re going to keep the oil.”
The New York Times reports that Venezuela’s navy has started to escort oil tankers from ports following Trump’s announcement of the blockade. Several ships left the country’s east coast with a naval escort on December 16 and 17, according to the report, which cited three people familiar with the matter.
The Trump administration is showing no signs of backing down. In fact, it appears to be shifting the narrative away from drug to oil.
On December 17, Trump told reporters that Venezuela had illegally taken away “energy rights” and that the U.S. wanted them back.
“We’re getting land, oil rights, whatever we had. They took it away because we had a president that maybe wasn’t watching. But they’re not going to do that. We want it back. They took our oil rights. We had a lot of oil there. As you know, they threw our companies out and we want it back,” he said.
The remarks confirm in a way that the U.S. is interested in the country’s vast oil reserves, believed to be the largest in the world, not just addressing the drug problem.
Responding to the remarks, Maduro said that Trump had revealed his true motives towards Venezuela which include a regime change.
“It is simply a warmongering and colonialist pretense, and we have said so many times, and now everyone sees the truth. The truth has been revealed,” Maduro said.
“The aim in Venezuela is a regime change to impose a puppet government that wouldn’t last 47 hours, that would hand over the Constitution, sovereignty, and all the wealth, turning Venezuela into a colony. It will simply never happen,” he added.
U.S. intentions are not very clear. However, a military intervention is far from certain. Trump appears to be betting that the military buildup in the Caribbean coupled with the blockade would naturally lead to the collapse of the regime in Caracas. If these approaches fail, Washington will have some hard decisions to make.
Taking down Maduro by force could have catastrophic consequences that reach far beyond Venezuela, especially that the U.S. clearly has no plan for the day after.
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the usa cut itself from venezuelian oil word oil dot com u.s. sets one-month deadline for chevron to end venezuela operations. regime change attempts, illegal unilateral ‘sanctions’ hitting hard populations, theft of venezuelan assets in us like citgo to give to venezuela’s enemy unelected puppet vassal wannabe guaido, piracy murders in international and sovereign waters apparently the arrogance and lies of the empire of greed know no limit.
yes stealing oil rights and selling deadly drugs to your neinghbours killing tens of thousands of young people’s really unattractive isn’t it.
some thugs would think it was great some mafia types neo nazis enemies of democracy. . they would think it was brave and courageous. like the genocidal eugenecists too. the haters.
read maría corina machado’s nobel prize speech, given by her daughter. google
http://www.how venezuela became a gangster state journal of democracy.
this is thug behavior without any pretense of any morality whatsoever. just a flimsy excuse that everyone understand is utter bs, pretty much in line with what the usa is nowadays.
and the pressure is on china, since it is the one buying venezuelan oil. just a reminder that the usa is a maritime power that intend/wish to cut its maritime commercial routes.