The U.S. military killed 14 people in three airstrikes in the eastern Pacific Ocean, Army Secretary Pete Hegseth said Tuesday, naming those killed as “narco-terrorists.”
The attack has deepened a diplomatic crisis and brought new scrutiny to its legality and purpose.
Hegseth wrote that the vessels were “trailing along known drug trafficking routes” and vowed: “We will pursue them and then pursue and kill them.”
Only one person survived the airstrike, the Army chief said, as Mexican search and rescue authorities “accepted the incident and assumed responsibility for coordinating the rescue.”
The attack is the latest in a string of attacks since early September, bringing the death toll from 13 publicly known attacks to at least 57, according to an unofficial tally.
Caracas denounced the attacks as provocations and accused the US government of staging a “false flag” operation following the detention of suspected mercenaries.
It also points to increased U.S. naval posture, including the deployment of aircraft carriers and destroyers and joint exercises with Caribbean partners, as evidence of coercive pressure on Venezuela.
Colombia called the boat bombing a “murder” and human rights watchdogs warned that the use of deadly force on the high seas without a transparent legal basis risks amounting to extrajudicial executions.
Critics argue that the Trump administration’s militarization campaign resembles a pretext for coercive pressure on Venezuela to shape outcomes over the country’s vast oil and mineral wealth.