On September 1, President Donald Trump ordered an air strike on a speedboat in the Caribbean. The boat was obliterated. Eleven people were killed.
The next day, Trump proudly posted about it on Truth Social; he even attached a video. His post claimed that the people on board were “positively identified Tren de Aragua Narcoterrorists”—a reference to a notorious Venezuelan criminal organization—who were “transporting illegal narcotics” to the United States.
Since then, the U.S. has carried out at least seven more similar air strikes on alleged drug-smuggling boats in the Caribbean, reportedly killing at least 34 people. The eighth attack came late on Tuesday, according to a U.S. official. Where exactly these boats came from, and who exactly was aboard, is not publicly known. While claiming that the boats were running narcotics for foreign drug cartels, the administration has not said that they belonged to foreign governments, or that the people on board were state actors.
