Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced Friday that the military is sending an aircraft carrier to the coast of South America to help carry out President Donald Trump’s illegal extrajudicial murders of supposed “narcoterrorists.”
“In support of the President’s directive to dismantle Transnational Criminal Organizations (TCOs) and counter narco-terrorism in defense of the Homeland, the Secretary of War has directed the Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group and embarked carrier air wing to the U.S. Southern Command (USSOUTHCOM) area of responsibility (AOR),” Defense spokesperson Sean Parnell wrote on X.
He continued, “The enhanced U.S. force presence in the USSOUTHCOM AOR will bolster U.S. capacity to detect, monitor, and disrupt illicit actors and activities that compromise the safety and prosperity of the United States homeland and our security in the Western Hemisphere. These forces will enhance and augment existing capabilities to disrupt narcotics trafficking and degrade and dismantle TCOs.”
Venezuelan immigrants are taken to the CECOT prison in El Salvador as part of President Donald Trump’s war on Tren de Aragua.
Trump has ramped up his attacks—which are being done without congressional approval—on boats off the coast of South America, claiming that they’re bringing drugs to the United States. The attacks have killed many people, none of whom the Trump administration has proven were even carrying drugs.
On Thursday night, Hegseth announced that the military carried out yet another boat strike, killing all six people who were onboard. He claimed that the boat was operated by Tren de Aragua, the gang Trump deemed a terrorist organization to justify deporting Venezuelan immigrants to El Salvador.
“The vessel was known by our intelligence to be involved in illicit narcotics smuggling, was transiting along a known narco-trafficking route, and carrying narcotics,” Hegseth wrote on X. “Six male narco-terrorists were aboard the vessel during the strike, which was conducted in international waters—and was the first strike at night. All six terrorists were killed and no U.S. forces were harmed in this strike.”
Foreign leaders have criticized Trump’s attacks, with Colombian President Gustavo Petro saying, “U.S. government officials have committed a murder and violated our sovereignty in territorial waters.”
But Trump—who has long whined that he deserves a Nobel Peace Prize—has defended the killings, saying that he has no plans to seek congressional approval.
“Well, I don’t think we’re going to necessarily ask for a declaration of war. I think we’re just going to kill people that are bringing drugs into our country, okay? We’re going to kill them, you know? They’re going to be, like, dead. Okay?” he said Thursday.
But even some Republicans aren’t on board with Trump murdering people without congressional approval or due process.
Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky told NBC News that Trump’s boat strikes “go against all of our tradition.”
“You have to present evidence,” he said. “So all these people have been blown up without us knowing their name, without any evidence of a crime.”
