The United States has struck a seventh vessel in its campaign against suspected drug boats in the Caribbean, according to an Associated Press timeline of the operation. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the vessel was carrying 'substantial amounts of narcotics' and was associated with the National Liberation Army, or ELN, a Colombian rebel group; three people were killed.
The strike extends a campaign that has grown week by week. President Donald Trump announced a fifth strike on October 14, killing six people, confirmed on October 15 that he had authorized the CIA to conduct covert operations inside Venezuela, and announced a sixth strike on October 16 against a semisubmersible craft, killing two people and leaving two survivors.
Those survivors were sent to Ecuador and Colombia, their home countries, 'for detention and prosecution,' the president said — a repatriation that avoided questions about what their legal status would have been in the U.S. justice system.
The campaign's commander is also changing. The Navy admiral who oversaw military operations in the region, Adm. Alvin Holsey of U.S. Southern Command, said he will retire in December, barely a year into a posting that typically lasts three to four years.
Trump has declared drug cartels to be unlawful combatants and said the U.S. is in an 'armed conflict' with them, an assertion in an administration memo obtained by the AP. Several senators and human rights groups have questioned the legality of the strikes, and Senate Republicans this month voted down legislation that would have required the president to seek congressional authorization before further strikes.
