The US has carried out a strike against an alleged drug-carrying vessel in the southern Caribbean after leaving Venezuela, President Donald Trump announced on Tuesday.
Trump offered few details on the strike, which Secretary of State Marco Rubio said targeted a vessel being operated by a “designated narco-terrorist organisation”.
The Trump administration has ratcheted up military and political pressure against the regime of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in recent weeks, including through a $50m (£37m) reward for information leading to his arrest on drug trafficking charges.
Maduro has been defiant, vowing Venezuela would fight any attempted US military intervention in the country.
Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, Trump said only that US forces had “shot out” a “drug-carrying boat” in the vicinity of Venezuela.
“A lot of drugs in that boat,” he said.
Trump added he had been briefed on the incident by the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Dan Caine.
“As @potus just announced moments ago, today the US military conducted a lethal strike in the southern Carribean against a drug vessel which had departed from Venezuela and was being operated by a designated narco-terrorist organisation,” Rubio said in a post on X following Trump’s announcement.
It is so far unclear where the vessel was going, what drugs it was believed to have been carrying and what organisation it allegedly belonged to.
The defence department confirmed that a “precision strike” took place but provided no further detail.
After returning to the White House in January, the Trump administration has designated a several drug trafficking organisations and criminal groups in Mexico and elsewhere in Latin America as terrorist organisations.
Among them are two Venezuelan organisations: the gang Tren de Aragua and the “Cartel of the Suns”, which US authorities allege is headed by President Maduro and other high-ranking government officials, some drawn from the country’s military or intelligence services.
The US military has moved to bolster its forces in the southern Caribbean over the last two months, including through the deployment of additional naval vessels and thousands of US Marines and sailors.
The Trump administration has repeatedly signalled a willingness to use force to stem the flow of drugs into the US.
“There’s more where that came from,” Trump said of the strike on the vessel.
Venezuela’s government has reacted angrily to the deployments.
On Monday, for example, Maduro vowed to “declare a republic in arms” if the US attacked, adding that the American deployments are “the greatest threat that has been seen on our continent in the last 100 years”.