US President Defends Strike on Venezuelan “Drug Boat”

WASHINGTON, Sept 3 (Reuters) - President Donald Trump on Wednesday stood by the controversial U.S. military strike on a small vessel he said was carrying large quantities of narcotics from Venezuela, despite criticism over the operation’s legality and scant public evidence of the drugs on board.

In an Oval Office briefing alongside visiting Polish President Karol Nawrocki, Trump reiterated that U.S. forces acted lawfully when they conducted the lethal strike on the speedboat in international waters of the southern Caribbean on Tuesday, killing 11 suspected members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua. He described the vessel as being “loaded with huge quantities of drugs” bound for the United States, though he provided no further details on the type or amount of narcotics seized or destroyed.

“Venezuela has been a very negative player,” Trump said, defending the operation as part of his broader effort to curb the flow of illicit substances-particularly fentanyl-across America’s southern border. He asserted that precision military action against drug-trafficking vessels sends a clear message to transnational criminal organizations that supply illegal narcotics to the United States.

The strike marks the first known offensive military action in this region since the administration deployed additional warships and surveillance aircraft to the southern Caribbean last month as part of an “anti-narcoterrorism” initiative. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth have both praised the operation, with Hegseth warning on Tuesday that this action represents just the “beginning of a campaign” against Venezuelan cartels.

Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro has denounced the deployment and strike as an imperialist threat, accusing Washington of seeking regime change under the pretext of combating drug trafficking. Caracas has challenged U.S. claims linking Maduro to Tren de Aragua, pointing out that a declassified U.S. intelligence assessment found no definitive evidence of direct collaboration between the Venezuelan government and the gang.

The Pentagon has released minimal information about the strike’s execution, and senior defense officials have declined to disclose whether any narcotics were actually recovered at sea. U.S. officials say they will continue to intensify maritime operations in the Caribbean to interdict drug shipments, even as legal experts and human rights advocates question the use of lethal force against unarmed traffickers.