One by one, boats in the Caribbean Sea have been vaporized by the U.S. military over the last several weeks.
The strikes, deemed illegal by critics, have raised questions about whether the United States is at war without congressional authorization, and whether the Trump administration is escalating conflict against the cartels in hopes that it will lead to regime change in Venezuela and the deposing of its socialist, strongman leader, Nicolas Maduro. (Subscribe to MR. RIGHT, a free weekly newsletter about modern masculinity)
Strikes On Alleged ‘Narco-Terrorists’
President Donald Trump directed the military in late July to take action against what he and the administration have deemed terrorist groups. These groups include Tren de Aragua and Cartel de los Soles. White House officials have maintained that President Maduro controls both groups, though the allegations regarding Tren de Aragua have been disputed by U.S. intelligence agencies.
Since then, the U.S. military has carried out four known strikes against boats that were allegedly smuggling drugs in the Caribbean Sea.
The first strike occurred Sept. 2. President Trump said the boat was carrying 11 people, all of whom were allegedly members of Tren de Aragua. In a memo to Congress, Trump said the strike was an act of self-defense.
The second strike came about two weeks later, on Sept. 15, and killed three Venezuelans. The administration described these people as “unlawful combatants.” (RELATED: ‘Literally Blown To Bits’: JD Vance Issues Warning To Drug Cartels ‘Trying To Kill Our Citizens’)
On Sept. 19, the military carried out its third strike, though the government did not name the nationality or group of the three people slain.
Most recently, on Oct. 3, War Secretary Pete Hegseth announced a fourth strike, which killed four people. Hegseth asserted the boat was a “narco-trafficking vessel affiliated with Designated Terrorist Organizations.”
Earlier this morning, on President Trump’s orders, I directed a lethal, kinetic strike on a narco-trafficking vessel affiliated with Designated Terrorist Organizations in the USSOUTHCOM area of responsibility. Four male narco-terrorists aboard the vessel were killed in the… pic.twitter.com/QpNPljFcGn
— Secretary of War Pete Hegseth (@SecWar) October 3, 2025
In total, 21 people have been killed, all in international waters.
The administration has yet to provide any evidence backing up their allegations that these boats were engaged in drug trafficking, were even headed toward the United States, or were affiliated with either cartel.
The Specter Of Regime Change
Since Trump’s July directive, the U.S. military has built up a significant naval presence in the south Caribbean Sea, with eight warships, several surveillance planes, MQ-9 Reapers, and one attack submarine being deployed to the region. The administration has also sent 10 F-35 fighter jets to Puerto Rico, and up to 4,500 Marines and sailors.
Though President Trump has denied that regime change in Venezuela is the final goal, the specter of an all-out war looms over the administration’s recent escalations. NBC News reported Sept. 26 that the administration has drawn up options on potential strikes on drug traffickers within Venezuela’s borders.
In an interview with Fox News, Hegseth described Maduro as “effectively a kingpin of a drug narco state” and added that he “should be worried.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who has long been hawkish on Venezuela, Maduro’s regime and his predecessor, Hugo Chavez, seems to be gaining more influence within the administration as he advocates for further escalation. (RELATED: ‘Paying Far More Attention’: Rubio Turns His Gaze To America’s Backyard After Years Of Neglect From Washington)
“What will stop [the cartels] is when you blow them up. When you get rid of them,” Rubio said Sept. 3 after the administration’s first strike. “So they were designated as what they are, they are narco-terrorist organizations. So the same information and the same intelligence mechanisms maybe with a higher focus was used to determine that a drug boat was headed towards, eventually the United States and instead of interdicting it, on the president’s orders, they blew them up. And it’ll happen again … The President of the United States is going to wage war on narcoterrorist organizations.”
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio arrives at Las Americas International Airport in Santo Domingo on February 6, 2025, en route to Miami. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Thursday supervised the seizure of a second aircraft belonging to Venezuela’s leftist government in less than a year, showing a hard line despite nascent diplomacy. (Photo by Mark Schiefelbein / POOL / AFP) (Photo by MARK SCHIEFELBEIN/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
In an interview mid-September, Rubio claimed that cartels were “masquerading as a government.”
“So we’re not going to have a cartel, operating or masquerading as a government, operating in our own hemisphere,” he said. “The President of the United States made clear that he’s not going to allow cartels, that cartel or any other cartel, to operate with impunity in our hemisphere and send drugs towards the United States. And he’s going to use the U.S. military and all the elements of American power to target cartels who are targeting America.”
Heightening fears of war, The New York Times reported Oct. 6 that the U.S. was cutting diplomatic outreach with Venezuela. Rick Grenell, a special presidential envoy, had been holding talks with Maduro and other Venezuelan officials. However, Trump reportedly called Grenell during a meeting with U.S. military leaders, instructing him to end all negotiations with Maduro.
Several days prior, the Trump administration argued in a confidential notice to Congress that the United States was engaged in an “armed conflict” with drug cartels, The New York Times reported Oct. 2. This notice went further than the administration’s previous claims of striking the boats as isolated acts of self-defense. According to the notice, Trump had “determined” that cartels engaged in drug trafficking were “nonstate armed groups” and their actions “constitute an armed attack against the United States.”
“Based upon the cumulative effects of these hostile acts against the citizens and interests of the United States and friendly foreign nations, the president determined that the United States is in a noninternational armed conflict with these designated terrorist organizations,” the notice reportedly said.
The Trump administration has also remained adamant that Maduro is an “illegitimate” leader, fueling more speculation that their ultimate aim is to depose him.
“We view the Maduro regime as illegitimate, and the president has clearly shown that he’s willing to use any and all means necessary to stop the illegal trafficking of deadly drugs from the Venezuelan regime into the United States of America,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said at a press briefing in September.
Legal Murkiness
Of course, Democrats and experts cited in The New York Times have come out firmly against the administration’s escalation on the cartels, calling it illegal and unconstitutional. However, Republican Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, along with several Senate Democrats, sponsored a resolution that would have restricted President Trump’s authority in conducting the strikes. Paul was joined by Republican Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski. (RELATED: Two Republicans Vote To Block Trump Striking Narco Boats)
The resolution failed.
“If anyone gave a you-know-what about justice, perhaps those in charge of deciding whom to kill might let us know their names, present proof of their guilt, show evidence of their crimes,” Paul said in a speech on the Senate floor Oct. 8. “Is it too much to ask to know the names of those we kill before we kill them? To know what evidence exists of their guilt? At the very least, the government should explain how the gang came to be labeled as terrorists.”
Paul added, “The blow-them-to-smithereens crowd also conveniently ignores the fact that death is generally not the penalty for drug smuggling.”
The Kentucky senator also traded barbs with Vice President J.D. Vance, who said after the first strike that “killing cartel members who poison our fellow citizens is the highest and best use of our military.”
JD “I don’t give a shit” Vance says killing people he accuses of a crime is the “highest and best use of the military.”
Did he ever read To Kill a Mockingbird?
Did he ever wonder what might happen if the accused were immediately executed without trial or representation??… https://t.co/VdnJbZkGfS
— Rand Paul (@RandPaul) September 7, 2025
Conservative legal expert Andy McCarthy argued the administration’s claim that the U.S. is fighting “nonstate actors” in a “noninternational armed conflict,” an equivalent to war against al-Qaeda after 9/11, is deeply flawed.
“That’s a specious analogy given that (a) it is inconsistent with the administration’s prior insistence that the cartels in question, rather than nonstate actors, are arms of the Maduro regime in Venezuela; and (b) the post-9/11 conflict against the nonstate jihadist actors was pursuant to a congressional authorization for the use of military force overwhelmingly approved after al-Qaeda slaughtered nearly 3,000 Americans in four suicide hijackings of jumbo jets — destroying the World Trade Center and smashing into the Pentagon — the culmination of eight years of sporadic mass-murder attacks,” he wrote.
McCarthy also laid out that although drug trafficking is a serious felony under U.S. law, it is not tantamount to terrorism.
According to a YouGov poll conducted between Sept. 5-8, the majority of Americans oppose using military force to oust Maduro or launching a full-scale invasion of Venezuela.