President Donald Trump has confirmed that the United States carried out another strike on a vessel in the Caribbean Sea this week, further escalating tensions with nearby Venezuela.
In an Oval Office meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Friday, Trump made his first statements about the attack, when confronted with media reports about survivors.
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“We attacked a submarine, and that was a drug-carrying submarine built specifically for the transportation of massive amounts of drugs,” Trump said, without offering evidence about what kind of vessel it was or what it was transporting.
“This was not an innocent group of people. I don’t know too many people that have submarines.”
The news agency Reuters broke the story of a new attack on Thursday. It was the first time survivors have been reported since the US began its bombing campaign in the Caribbean on September 2.
A Department of Defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told news outlets in the US that the two survivors have been taken into custody. It is unclear whether they will be prosecuted or what their condition is. Two others died in the blast, according to reports.
In Friday’s meeting, Secretary of State Marco Rubio declined to offer further details when asked about the survivors. He did, however, defend US operations as necessary to intercept illegal drugs.
“We’re undertaking these operations against narco-terrorists,” Rubio said. “That’s what these are. These are terrorists. Let’s be clear.”
Five other attacks have been confirmed by the Trump administration, with at least 28 people killed in total.
The Trump administration has depicted the military strikes as an effort to stem drug trafficking from Venezuela.
The government has not offered evidence regarding the identities of those killed, but Colombian President Gustavo Petro has said he believes some of his citizens were among the deceased.
A family in Trinidad and Tobago, which lies 11 kilometres (six miles) from the Venezuelan coast, has also said it believes a relative was killed in the recent string of attacks.
Venezuela has appealed to the UN Security Council for the strikes to be declared illegal.
Legal analysts have said that they almost certainly constitute a violation of US and international law, since drug traffickers are not considered combatants in a military conflict.
Maduro ‘offered everything’
In Friday’s meeting, Trump also appeared to confirm reports that Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has offered concessions in a bid to lower tensions with the US.
“He has offered everything. You’re right,” Trump said in response to a reporter’s question. “You know why? Because he doesn’t want to f*** around with the United States.”
Trump has a long history of animosity with Maduro, stretching back to the “maximum pressure” campaign he undertook in his first term in office.
Shortly after returning to office for a second term in January, Trump engaged in some limited negotiations with the Maduro government, sending special envoy Richard Grenell to Caracas to arrange the deportation of migrants to Venezuela and the return of imprisoned US citizens.
But earlier this month, the Trump administration called for Grenell’s efforts to come to an end, effectively severing diplomatic outreach.
In August, Trump also increased the bounty he had offered for Maduro’s arrest to $50m.
The escalating tensions with Venezuela have coincided with Trump’s efforts to increase his own executive power.
He has claimed that the US faces an “invasion” of violent migrants, drug traffickers and criminal groups, in order to make sweeping emergency declarations and use wartime powers like those embued in the Alien Enemies Act of 1798.
To justify the wartime powers, Trump has said an “invasion” by the gang Tren de Aragua was masterminded by Maduro himself.
He has not offered any proof, and a report from the National Intelligence Council in April appeared to contradict his claims, finding no evidence of coordination between the Tren de Aragua gang and the Maduro administration.
Critics have nevertheless raised the alarm that such claims could be used to lay the groundwork for military strikes meant to topple the Maduro government. Already, both the US and Venezuela have bolstered their military presence near the Caribbean.
Trump seemed to confirm reports earlier this week that he had authorised the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to conduct covert operations in Venezuela.
Venezuela is not considered a major source of global drug trafficking.
