On Wednesday, U.S. armed forces destroyed a new skiff allegedly linked to drug trafficking in international waters in the Eastern Pacific, killing the four people aboard the vessel. The attack was carried out under the framework of Operation “Southern Spear” and was ordered by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, according to U.S. Southern Command via its official X account. The U.S. Armed Forces accompanied the announcement of the attack with a video showing a moving vessel being struck. The new attack was announced just minutes before President Donald Trump was set to make an announcement from the White House, where he would be assessing the first eleven months of his administration. Last Tuesday, Trump ordered the seizure of all sanctioned Venezuelan tankers, as was done with one last week in the Caribbean, which was towed to a U.S. port. With this new attack, over 30 vessels have now been destroyed and at least a hundred people have been killed, allegedly associated with organized crime, although the Trump administration has not published details of their identities. The United States maintains a strong military presence off the coast of Venezuela, and the Republican leader has not ruled out that attacks on land targets may soon be carried out under the guise of combating the drug trade.
