WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said Monday that the U.S. military had carried out a strike on a second Venezuelan boat, alleging that the ship was helmed by “narcoterrorists” and carrying “illegal narcotics” headed to the United States.
Trump said the strike killed three people, whom he called “male terrorists,” and that no U.S. forces were harmed. It came nearly two weeks after the United States blew up a boat off Venezuela, killing 11 people, with Trump saying the vessel was carrying drugs and operated by the Tren de Aragua gang.
Trump announced Monday's strike on Truth Social, adding a short video of a boat being set aflame. He wrote that people transporting drugs that can kill Americans should take it as a warning, adding, “WE ARE HUNTING YOU!”
Asked by a reporter Monday in the Oval Office whether he planned to provide proof that the second vessel was carrying narcoterrorists, Trump indicated that the video supported his argument.
“Well, we have proof. All you have to do is look at the cargo that was, like — it spattered all over the ocean, big bags of cocaine and fentanyl all over the place, and it was — plus, we have recorded evidence that they were leaving,” Trump said.
The top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island, condemned the strikes, calling them an "outrageous violation of the law."
"These reckless, unauthorized operations not only put American lives at risk, they threaten to ignite a war with Venezuela that would drag our nation into a conflict we did not choose," Reed said.
Venezuelan government officials did not specifically refer to the second strike Monday, but Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello said at a televised news conference on state-run media after Trump’s announcement that the United States was deliberately provoking Venezuela. He added that the relations between the two countries had crumbled, and he placed the blame on the United States.
“Some hope we will fall into the provocations that the U.S. deliberately makes to generate an open military confrontation,” Cabello said.
The Venezuelan government has argued that the boat targeted earlier this month was a fishing vessel. A day after that strike, Trump threatened further escalation, telling reporters that “Venezuela has been a very bad actor.”
Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro had vowed one day before that strike to declare his country a "republic in arms" should it be attacked by U.S. forces.
A source familiar with the first strike told NBC News at the time that the U.S. government’s goal was to pressure Maduro to make rash decisions that could lead to his ouster, without the deployment of American troops inside the country.
The Trump administration has placed renewed pressure on Venezuela, leading to tensions between the two countries. The State Department this year designated eight drug cartels and criminal organizations as “global terrorists,” giving the government new legal authority to take military action against them.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, a Venezuela hard-liner, said in an interview last month that the designation made dealing with the groups a “national security issue.”
After the strike Monday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth reposted video of the explosion and said "narco-terrorists are the enemies of the United States."
"We will stop at nothing to defend our homeland and our citizens," Hegseth said on X. "We will track them, kill them, and dismantle their networks throughout our hemisphere — at the times and places of our choosing."
