The United States “conducted a lethal strike” against an alleged “drug vessel” in the southern Caribbean, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Tuesday.
“As @potus just announced moments ago, today the U.S. 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 organization,” Rubio said in a post on X after President Donald Trump referenced the incident in Oval Office remarks.
The move represents a significant escalation by the Trump administration against drug cartels, a number of which the administration has designated as foreign terrorist organizations.
It could have serious implications for the region where the US has amassed military assets, drawing the ire of Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro.
CNN has asked the Venezuelan government for comment.
Rubio himself is on his way to Mexico and Ecuador on Tuesday.
Trump on Tuesday said the US military “just over the last few minutes, literally shot out a boat, a drug carrying boat.”
“It just happened moments ago, and our great general, head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff … he gave us a little bit of a briefing, and you’ll see, and there’s more where that came from,” Trump said.
“We have a lot of drugs pouring into our country, coming in for a long time, and we just these came out of Venezuela, and coming out, very heavily from Venezuela,” he said.
