Trump says drug cartels operating in the Caribbean are ‘unlawful combatants’ | Trump administration
Trump administration is trying to justify strikes on the so-called Venezuelan drug boats by advancing a new legal theory that the United States is now in a “non-international armed conflict” according to a person familiar with a notification in the Congress.
The notification was provided by senior Pentagon officials as part of an attempt to explain the legal arguments of Trump administrations for strikes, including a classified briefing to the members of the Senate armed services committee on Wednesday.
He occurs after the American army made strikes on three boats in the Caribbean Sea last month which killed 17 people and launched a generalized international indignation, in particular in Central and South America.
The administration is required by law to rely the US government from the Armed Forces by the US government. The New York Times reported that the administration’s memo quotes this status and also repeats its past justifications that the strikes were carried out in self-defense and accusing boats of containing members of a Venezuelan drug gang. But the memo also goes further and supervises the attacks of the American army against boats to be part of a sustained conflict.
The memo also indicates that Trump has judged that the cartels have engaged in the smuggling of drugs as “non-state armed groups” whose actions “constitute an armed attack on the United States”.
The Trump administration has increased its military presence in the Caribbean in recent months, deploying a number of ships and soldiers in Puerto Rico. He justified military action as a necessary escalation to stem the flow of medication in the United States. But some legislators as well as human rights groups have questioned the legality of the attacks.
The opinion at Congress is an aggressive escalation in the attempts of the United States government to stop the flow of drugs. The war against the US government’s drug in recent years has been increasingly focused on political targets, and the latter climbing can be considered an attempted administration to put pressure on the Venezuelan government.
Earlier this year, the Trump administration determined that several criminal groups were “terrorist” organizations. The designation of the administration included a number of Mexican cartels, the MS-13 gang, the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua and the so-called Cartel of Los Venezuelan.
For years, the US government has accused the Venezuelan government of Nicolás Maduro of being involved in drug trafficking. The Trump administration earlier this year accused Maduro of directing the activities of Tren of Aragua and used it as justification to expel hundreds of immigrants to a Salvadorian notorious prison under the Act respecting extraterrestrial enemies.
Intelligence assessments have determined that there are little evidence of Maduro’s ties with Tren from Aragua.
Maduro and members of his cabinet and soldiers are also accused by the United States of leading the Los Soles cartel and to try to circulate cocaine in the United States. The cartel infrastructure has been disputed, analysts and drug trafficking experts saying that the LOS cartel is a loose network of lower -ranking military officials without strict hierarchical structure.
Earlier this year, the US government has raised its bonus for Maduro to $ 50 million. There is an active act in a Manhattan Federal Court linked to the Los Cartel affair. A co-defender and former chief of Venezuelan military intelligence pleaded guilty earlier this year to crimes of narco-terrorism.
The three ships that have been targeted by the United States in recent weeks crossed the Caribbean. Trump administration officials, without evidence, said the ships transported members of Tren from Aragua with medicines for the United States.
The administration was categorical in climbing its fight against fentanyl traffic in the United States. However, fentanyl generally arrives through the southern border of the United States of Mexico.
