No need for white supremacist gangsters
We'll just have the military shoot suspected criminals on sight.
It should not be surprising that Donald Trump has little regard for Latin American lives.
And I have not seen evidence that the boat U.S. military forces attacked, killing 11, was in fact a drug-smuggling boat headed to the U.S., and I would argue that the Guardian should not have accepted this claim uncritically.[1] Maybe the boat was. Maybe it wasn’t. Even if it was, it seems that this should have been dealt with through judicial process[2] when the boat reached sovereign waters.
“‘Instead of interdicting it, on the president’s orders, we blew it up — and it’ll happen again,’ Marco Rubio told reporters Wednesday [September 3] in Mexico City.” The Trump administration claims to know exactly who and what was on that boat. It has not shared any evidence supporting that assertion. Meanwhile, at least one expert disputes the claim that Tren de Aragua, “a criminal group [the] administration has sought to connect to [Venezuelan President Nicolás] Maduro and violent crime in the U.S.,” is significantly involved in drugs trafficking.[3]
“We [Colombians] have been capturing civilians transporting drugs for decades without killing them. Those who transport drugs are not the big drug lords, but very poor young people from the Caribbean and the Pacific.”[4] It is always the poor who serve as cannon fodder for the rich.
I can only infer that this is an unprovoked attack on civilians, an apparent violation of International Humanitarian Law.[5] And the logic of this attack even extends within U.S. borders: “Mary Ellen O’Connell, a professor of law at Notre Dame, said the strike violated international law. The United States is not in armed conflict with Venezuela or its criminal elements, she noted, which means it violated the suspects’ right to life.
“It also raises the possibility that Trump, in pursuit of other traffickers, could launch military strikes within the United States, she said.”[6] Which is certainly something to contemplate as Trump illegally federalizes state National Guards, sending them into major cities in violation of the Posse Comitatus Act.[7]
There might be a lot more bloodshed both inside and outside of the U.S. unless a stop is put to this.
[1] Tom Phillips, “US conducts ‘kinetic strike’ against drug boat from Venezuela, killing 11, Trump says,” Guardian, September 2, 2025, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/sep/02/trump-venezuela-boat-lethal-strike
[2] John Hudson, Samantha Schmidt, and Alex Horton, “Trump ordered strike on suspected drug boat to send a message, Rubio says,” Washington Post, September 3, 2025, https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/09/03/us-strikes-venezuela-alleged-drug-boat/
[3] John Hudson, Samantha Schmidt, and Alex Horton, “Trump ordered strike on suspected drug boat to send a message, Rubio says,” Washington Post, September 3, 2025, https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/09/03/us-strikes-venezuela-alleged-drug-boat/
[4] Gustavo Petro, quoted in John Hudson, Samantha Schmidt, and Alex Horton, “Trump ordered strike on suspected drug boat to send a message, Rubio says,” Washington Post, September 3, 2025, https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/09/03/us-strikes-venezuela-alleged-drug-boat/
[5] International Committee of the Red Cross, “Frequently asked questions: Rules of war,” July 20, 2023, https://www.icrc.org/en/document/FAQ-rules-of-war-ihl
[6] John Hudson, Samantha Schmidt, and Alex Horton, “Trump ordered strike on suspected drug boat to send a message, Rubio says,” Washington Post, September 3, 2025, https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/09/03/us-strikes-venezuela-alleged-drug-boat/
[7] Kyle Cheney and Josh Gerstein, “Judge rules Trump can't act as national police chief,” Politico, September 2, 2025, https://www.politico.com/news/2025/09/02/trump-los-angeles-national-guard-ruling-00539393