WASHINGTON (AP) – President Donald Trump justified on Wednesday A fatal military strike His administration said it was made a day ago against Venezuelan gangs as a necessary effort by the US to send an unmistakable message to the Latin American cartels.
Asked why the military didn’t stop the ship instead, he captured people on board, Trump said the operation would make drug smugglers think about trying to move drugs to the US.
“A lot of drugs have come to our country and we can kill a lot of people. Everyone understands that perfectly,” Trump said. Polish President Karol Naulocky’s host At the White House. He said, “Obviously they’re not doing it again. And I don’t think a lot of other people are doing it again. When they see that tape they’re going to say, ‘Don’t do this’.”
Tuesday’s strike was a surprising departure from a typical US drug thwarting effort when Trump ordered a massive naval accumulation in waters near Venezuela.
Later on Wednesday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned that such an operation would “come again.”
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio was on his plane at Felipe Angeles International Airport in Zunpango, a suburb of Mexico City, on Wednesday, September 3, 2025. (AP photo/Jaclyn Martin, Pool)
Rubio said previous US halt efforts in Latin America have not halted the flow of illegal drugs to the United States.
“The thing that stops them is when you blow them up, when you get rid of them,” Rubio said during a visit to Mexico.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegses said on “Fox & Friends” that Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro runs his country “as a kingpin in a drug-drug state.”
Heggs said officials “know exactly who was on the ship” and “know exactly what they were doing.” However, the Republican administration has not provided evidence in support of Trump’s claim that the ship operator is from Gang Tren de Aragua in Venezuela and is trying to smuggle drugs.
“President Trump is willing to move on to the attack in a way that no one else has ever seen,” said Hegses, who refused to detail how the strike took place.
The Venezuelan government has kept the existence of a minimum for a long time Tren de Aragua South American countries have limited their response to strikes to question the truthfulness of videos published by the Trump administration showing the attack. Communications Minister Freddie Unies suggested it was created using artificial intelligence, describing it as “an almost cartoonish animation, not a realistic portrayal of the explosion.”
Hegseth replied that the strike was “undetectedly not artificial intelligence,” adding that he saw live footage from Washington when the strike took place.
Trump and administration officials have repeatedly accused the gang of being at the roots of violence and illegal drug trafficking that plagues some American cities.
The president on Tuesday repeated his claims – Contradicts the declassified US intelligence report rating – Tren de Aragua operates under the control of Maduro.
President Nicolas Maduro will hold a press conference in Caracas, Venezuela on Monday, September 1, 2025 (AP Photo/Ariana Kubilos)
When announcing the strike, Trump said the operation he said he had died was carried out in international waters. He also noted that the gang has been designated as a foreign terrorist organization by the US government.
Unlike its counterparts in Colombia, Brazil and Central America, Trenderagua has no major involvement in smuggling cocaine across borders, according to Insight Crime, which published a 64-page report on gangs last month based on two years of research.
“We’re looking forward to seeing you in the world,” said Jeremy McDermott, co-founder of Columbia-based Insight Crime.
Still, he said that digging deeper into the drug trade one day would not be a major leap, as the cells involved are spreading across Latin America. Meanwhile, rhetoric from Washington officials who denounce the TDA on behalf of all Venezuelan drug traffickers ensures it remains a target of the intense US government focus.
“It’s almost impossible to tell who is the TDA today and who isn’t,” McDermott said. “The deportation and statement from the United States suggest that the TDA is currently being used as an explanation of all Venezuelan criminals acting overseas.”
Some international war experts have questioned the legality of strikes.
“Deliberate killing outside the hostilities of armed conflict is illegal except that it saves life right away,” says Mary Ellen O’Connell, an expert on international law and use of force at the University of Notre Dame Law School. “There was no hostilities in the Caribbean.”
Heggs was unclear in his comments on Fox about whether Trump wanted a “change of administration” in Venezuela.
“Well, that’s the president’s decision,” Hegses said. He added, “Everyone would like it,” Maduro “I’m just giving up on myself, but that’s a presidential decision.”
The US announced plans to boost it last month Sea marine forces off the coast of Venezuela I’ll fight Threats from Latin American drug cartels.
Maduro’s government responded by deploying troops along the Venezuelan coast, deploying the border with neighboring Colombia, and urging Venezuelans to join the militia.
Ryan Berg, director of the Americas program at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, said Tuesday’s strike clearly shows Maduro, a US paradigm shift to declaring Tren de Lagua and the Mexican cartel as foreign terrorist organizations, as well as the local government.
“This is the US that views security differently,” Berg said. “They just demonstrated their ability to use lethal forces in the Western Hemisphere and said they were already trying to do the same on Mexican territory and couldn’t get the level of cooperation they wanted.”
The United States has a complex legacy of obsessing with Latin American issues, and US military intervention played a major role in destabilizing the government, particularly during the Cold War, paving the way for a coup in Guatemala, Chile and many Central American countries.
In recent years, the US has adopted a more nuanced approach, providing foreign aid to many countries and security forces, but has not taken the direct strikes seen in Caribbean waters.
Mexican diplomat Juan Ramon de la Fuente, who met with Rubio on Wednesday, stressed the importance of the Trump administration to operate in areas that “respect the sovereignty” of other governments and allies.
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Lee was reported from Mexico City. Associated writers Regina Garciacano, Megan Janetsky of Mexico City and Joshua Goodman of Miami contributed the report.
