US military attacks another alleged drug boat in eastern Pacific, killing three | Trump administration

The United States carried out a new attack on a suspected drug trafficking boat in the Eastern Pacific on Saturday, killing three people on board, the Pentagon announced on Sunday.

“Intelligence confirmed that the vessel was involved in illicit drug trafficking, was transiting a known drug trafficking route, and was transporting narcotics,” the US Southern Command announced in a social media post.

The announcement said the boat was in international waters when it was struck by Joint Task Force Southern Spear. He did not give details about where the ship came from or what organization it was associated with.

The latest operation is the 21st known attack on drug boats by the U.S. military since early September in what it calls a justified effort to disrupt the flow of narcotics into the United States.

The strikes left more than 80 dead, according to Pentagon figures. Lawmakers in Congress, human rights groups and U.S. allies have raised questions about the legality of the attacks.

The Trump administration has said it has the legal authority to carry out the strikes, with the Justice Department providing a legal opinion that justifies them and says U.S. military personnel who carry out the operations are immune from prosecution. The administration has also not publicly explained the legal rationale for the decision to attack the boats rather than stop them and those on board.

The latest deadly strike came as the U.S. Navy announced Sunday that its most advanced aircraft carrier had arrived in the Caribbean Sea, in a show of power that raised questions about what the new influx of troops and weapons could mean for the Trump administration’s intentions in South America.

The arrival of the USS Gerald R Ford and other warships completes the largest buildup of American firepower in the region in generations. Upon arrival, the “Operation Southern Spear” mission included nearly a dozen Navy ships and approximately 12,000 Sailors and Marines.

The carrier strike group, which includes squadrons of fighter jets and guided-missile destroyers, transited the Anegada Passage near the British Virgin Islands on Sunday morning, the navy said.

Rear Adm. Paul Lanzilotta, who commands the strike group, said it would bolster an already large force of U.S. warships to “protect our nation’s security and prosperity against narco-terrorism in the Western Hemisphere.”

Admiral Alvin Holsey, commander in charge of the Caribbean and Latin America, said in a statement that U.S. forces “are prepared to combat transnational threats that seek to destabilize our region.”

Holsey, who will retire next month after just a year on the job, said the strike group’s deployment is “a critical step in strengthening our resolve to protect the security of the Western Hemisphere and the security of the American homeland.”

In Trinidad and Tobago, which is just 7 miles (11 km) from Venezuela, government officials said troops had begun “training exercises” with the U.S. military that would run through much of the week.

Trinidad and Tobago Foreign Minister Sean Sobers described the joint exercises as the second in less than a month and said they were aimed at combating violent crime in the island nation, which has become a stopover for drug shipments bound for Europe and North America. The prime minister has been a strong supporter of US military strikes.

The exercises will include Marines from the 22nd Expeditionary Unit, stationed aboard Navy ships that have been looming off the Venezuelan coast for months.

The Venezuelan government called the training exercises an act of aggression. She had no immediate comment Sunday on the aircraft carrier’s arrival.