{"id":292942,"date":"2025-11-15T09:42:12","date_gmt":"2025-11-15T09:42:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/292942\/"},"modified":"2025-11-15T09:42:12","modified_gmt":"2025-11-15T09:42:12","slug":"latest-us-strike-on-an-alleged-drug-running-boat-kills-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/292942\/","title":{"rendered":"Latest US strike on an alleged drug-running boat kills 4"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 The U.S. military\u2019s 20th strike on a boat<\/a> accused of transporting drugs has killed four people in the Caribbean Sea, the U.S. military said Friday, coming as the Trump administration escalates its campaign<\/a> in South American waters.<\/p>\n

The latest strike happened Monday, according to a social media post on Friday by U.S. Southern Command, which oversees military operations in the Caribbean and Latin America. The latest strike brings the death toll<\/a> from the attacks that began in September to 80, with the Mexican Navy suspending its search for a survivor of a strike in late October after four days.<\/p>\n

Southern Command\u2019s post on X shows a boat speeding over water before it\u2019s engulfed in flames. The command said intelligence confirmed the vessel \u201cwas involved in illicit narcotics smuggling, transiting along a known narco-trafficking route, and carrying narcotics.\u201d<\/p>\n

Southern Command\u2019s post marked a shift away from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth\u2019s practice of typically announcing the attacks on social media, although he quickly reposted Southern Command\u2019s statement.<\/p>\n

Hegseth had announced the previous two strikes<\/a> on Monday after they had been carried out on Sunday. Meanwhile, the Trump administration is expanding the U.S. military\u2019s already large presence<\/a> in the region by bringing in the USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier<\/a>. The nation\u2019s most advanced warship is expected to arrive in the coming days after traveling from the Mediterranean Sea. <\/p>\n

Hegseth on Thursday formally named the mission \u201cOperation Southern Spear,\u201d emphasizing the growing significance and permanence of the military\u2019s presence in the region. Once the Ford arrives, the mission will encompass nearly a dozen Navy ships as well about 12,000 sailors and Marines.<\/p>\n

The Trump administration has insisted that the buildup of warships is focused on stopping the flow of drugs into the U.S., but it has released no evidence to support its assertions that those killed in the boats were \u201cnarcoterrorists.\u201d The strikes have targeted vessels largely in the Caribbean Sea but also have taken place in the eastern Pacific Ocean<\/a>, where much of the cocaine from the world\u2019s largest producers is smuggled.<\/p>\n

Some observers say the aircraft carrier is a big new tool of intimidation against Venezuelan President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro<\/a>, who faces charges of narcoterrorism in the U.S. Experts disagree on whether American warplanes may bomb land targets to pressure Maduro to step down.<\/p>\n

Secretary of State Marco Rubio says the U.S. doesn\u2019t recognize Maduro, who was widely accused of stealing last year\u2019s election<\/a>, as the leader of Venezuela and has called the government a \u201ctransshipment organization\u201d that openly cooperates with those trafficking drugs toward the U.S.<\/p>\n

Maduro has said the U.S. government is \u201cfabricating\u201d a war against him. Venezuela\u2019s government this week touted a \u201cmassive\u201d mobilization of troops and civilians to defend against possible U.S. attacks. <\/p>\n

Trump has justified the attacks by saying the United States is in \u201carmed conflict\u201d with drug cartels<\/a> and claiming the boats are operated by foreign terror organizations<\/a> that are flooding America\u2019s cities with drugs.<\/p>\n

Lawmakers, including Republicans, have pressed for more information on who is being targeted<\/a> and the legal justification for the strikes.<\/p>\n

Rubio and Hegseth met with a bipartisan group of lawmakers<\/a> who oversee national security issues last week, providing one of the first high-level glimpses into the legal rationale and strategy behind the strikes.<\/p>\n

Senate Republicans voted a day later to reject legislation that would have put a check<\/a> on Trump\u2019s ability to launch an attack against Venezuela without congressional authorization.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 The U.S. military\u2019s 20th strike on a boat accused of transporting drugs has killed four…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":292943,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,1927,23662,60187,12,22048,793,3502,643,1576,3,18231,1572,111,24265,21,792,19,22,20,25,24,800],"class_list":["post-292942","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-america","tag-ap-top-news","tag-caribbean","tag-caribbean-sea","tag-donald-trump","tag-drug-crimes","tag-general-news","tag-gerald-ford","tag-marco-rubio","tag-military-and-defense","tag-news","tag-nicolas-maduro","tag-pete-hegseth","tag-politics","tag-terrorism","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-government","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa","tag-washington-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292942","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=292942"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292942\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/292943"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=292942"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=292942"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=292942"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}