President Donald Trump said that US forces attacked a ship carrying drugs on Tuesday of the United States and killed 11 “narcoterrorists” from the gang, which was allegedly dominated by the left -wing Venezuelan leader Nicolas Madur.
Trump posted a video online with an open boat that carried many people traveling to a water body before exploding in a ball of flames.
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This step is a potentially significant escalation at a distance between Caracas and Washington, after the United States has deployed eight warships to Latin America in what he charges as a war on drug trafficking.
Trump initially announced in the White House that the US forces “fired a boat … a drug carrying a boat, a lot of drugs in this ship” without providing details.
The Republican later published a strike on a strike on its truth social network along with a black and white video exploding ship.
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“At the beginning of this morning, at my orders, the US military forces carried out a kinetic strike against positively identified narcoterrorists of Tren de Aragua,” Trump said without specifying the weapons used.
“The strike occurred while terrorists were at sea in international waters carrying illegal narcotics and heading to the United States. The strike resulted in 11 terrorists killed in action.”
No US forces were damaged, Trump added.
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He continued to claim that Tren de Aragua – a Venezuelan group, which he often referred to as part of his intervention against undocumented migration – “worked under the control of Nicolas Madura”.
The United States described the gang terrorist organization at the beginning of this year.
“Please let it serve as an announcement to anyone who even thinks that he has been thinking about drugs in the United States. Beware!” Trump added in his post.
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– “Full of Possible” –
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, a loud critic Madura, promised separately to continue using the “full strength” of the United States to “eradicate” drug cartels.
Trump “was very clear that he would use the full power of America, full of the United States to take these drug cartels, regardless of where they were working,” Rubio told reporters when Miami left for a visit to Mexico.
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Rubio said on X that the vessel “left Venezuela”.
Venezuela’s Maduro plunged the recent deployment of the US as a threat to the country.
Currently, there are eight US naval ships involved in the endra of narcotics in Latin America: three amphibious offensive ships, two destroyers, a cruiser and a litoral battle ship in the Caribbean and a destroyer in the East Pacific.
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The strike announcement followed the days of the assembly of voltage between Washington and Caracas, and Maduro declared the state of “maximum readiness” to defend against what he says are American military threats.
Maduro has been in Trump’s cross wings since the first term of Republicans from 2017 to 2021.
However, the US President’s policy of maximum pressure, including an oil embargo, has not been released by the Venezuelan leader in power.
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Washington doubled to $ 50 million for a reward for captivity Maduro, whose re -election in 2024 and 2018 was not recognized by the United States, even a large part of the international community in the middle of charges of fraud and oppression of voters.
Analysts said AFP that the deployment of US warships was probably aimed at increasing pressure on Maduro, which repeatedly accused Trump of attempting to change the regime.
Last week, Caracas asked the UN to intervene in a dispute by demanding “immediate stopping of US military commitment in the Caribbean”.
And on Monday, Maduro said that Venezuela was ready for the “period of armed struggle to defend the national territory” in the event of an attack.
(Tagstotranslate) Maduro
