By Patricia Zengerle
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -More than a week after President Donald Trump announced that the U.S. military had blown up a boat off Venezuela, the operation – which killed 11 people – remains a largely mystery to many in Washington.
Trump’s team released a video of the Sept. 2 strike and said it killed members of a Venezuelan gang transporting drugs. Still, officials have not identified who was on board, what illicit drugs were on the boat or how the attack was carried out.
Some experts questioned whether the decision to summarily kill people merely on suspicion of smuggling drugs violated international law. Trafficking in an illegal substance is not normally considered a capital offence.
Officials have given changing versions of where the boat was going. Shortly after the attack, Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters that the boat was probably headed to the Caribbean nation Trinidad & Tobago and Trump said it was headed for the U.S. Rubio later amended his comment.
In a break with tradition, Congress was not briefed in the week following the strike, beyond a legally mandated written notice. This angered Democratic lawmakers, and analysts said it was unusual.
“Usually, you see much more robust engagement” from a presidential administration, said Scott Anderson, a fellow in governance studies at the Brookings Institution. “A week after, if they still have not given a briefing on what happened and why… that is strange.”
Critics said the action in international waters was the latest example of Trump testing the limit of the law as he expands the scope of presidential power. The U.S. Constitution requires that Congress, not the president, must declare war.
In the notice to Congress, Trump cited the deaths of tens of thousands of Americans due to drug trafficking and said the vessel “was assessed to be affiliated with a designated terrorist organization and to be engaged in illicit drug trafficking activities.”
Trump has accused Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro of running the Tren de Aragua gang, which Washington has designated a terrorist organization. Maduro has denied any connection to the gang, and Caracas says it was rendered inactive two years ago.
But experts said Trump’s explanation did not address concerns that the strike violated international law. They noted that civilians were killed, while the Trump administration provided no evidence of what the vessel was carrying and did not establish that those on board threatened armed attack.
“Using the word ‘terrorist’ doesn’t change the facts,” Tess Bridgeman, a co-editor-in-chief at Just Security and a senior fellow at New York University law school, said in a social media post.
“If this is what it seems – laying the ground for using force in Venezuela, or elsewhere, without consent – it could portend an illegal and unnecessary war of choice,” she wrote.
FEW DETAILS
The sketchy details about the killing of the alleged cartel members contrasted with how the Trump administration has handled other military actions, even since the start of his second term in January.
After the June bombing of Iranian nuclear facilities, the administration held briefings for members of Congress and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff met with the press to explain the operation.
Experts noted that drug interdictions normally would involve the U.S. Coast Guard disabling a boat, which would then be seized and its crew arrested and tried.
“We don’t even know what drugs are on this boat, what evidence there is,” said David Smilde, a Venezuela expert at Tulane University.
Smilde said the “go-fast” boats typically used in the drugs trade normally would carry far fewer than 11 people, making it possible that at least some of those on board were refugees.
Tensions between Venezuela and the U.S. have escalated in the wake of the Republican president’s new approach to what he says is a war on illegal narcotics.
Trump has ordered the deployment of 10 F-35 fighter jets to Puerto Rico to conduct operations against drug cartels, and has sent at least seven warships to the Caribbean, carrying more than 4,500 sailors and Marines.
Marines and sailors from the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit have also been carrying out amphibious training and flight operations in southern Puerto Rico.
FURTHER MILITARY ACTION POSSIBLE
U.S. officials have not ruled out further action. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth told the troops on Monday that they were not deployed to the Caribbean for training but instead sent to the “front lines” of a critical counter-narcotics mission.
Members of Congress who typically would have been briefed about a major operation said they had been provided with little or no information.
“We have not received any sort of detailed explanation from the White House as to who the target was, what the intelligence was behind it, why the strike was taken,” Representative Adam Smith of Washington, the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, said on Monday.
Smith noted that an administration briefing for Congress on the incident had been scheduled for Friday, but was postponed until this week.
Republican Senator Rand Paul said it was a “worrisome policy” to blow up suspected drug dealers, without trial.
“Here we’re just assuming there’ll not be any problems, just by blowing up boats? Does anybody know people’s names? Is anybody going to present evidence as to what they are doing?” Paul told reporters on Monday evening.
(Reporting by Patricia Zengerle; additional reporting by Idrees Ali, Richard Cowan and Simon Lewis; editing by Don Durfee and David Gregorio)
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