By Jack Phillips
Contributing Writer
President Donald Trump on Wednesday sent a warning to Venezuela after the U.S. military earlier this week struck what the administration says was a boat carrying drugs in the Caribbean.
“We have to protect our country and we’re going to. Venezuela has been a very bad actor,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Wednesday. “They’ve been sending millions of people into the country. Many of them are Tren de Aragua, some of the worst people anywhere in the world.”
The U.S. military killed 11 people on Tuesday in a strike on a vessel from Venezuela, the president said in a social media post. It was the first known operation since the recent U.S. military deployment of warships to the southern Caribbean.
On Wednesday, Trump said that the boat was carrying massive amounts of drugs and “we have tapes of them speaking about it.”
“There are massive amounts of drugs coming into our country to kill a lot of people,” the president said. “You see bags of drugs all over the boat. A lot of other people won’t be doing it again after seeing that video.”
Earlier on Wednesday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said in an interview that operations would continue in the region.
Hegseth said that the boat was being operated by Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan gang designated a foreign terrorist organization earlier this year by the United States.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, speaking in Mexico City, said similar strikes will happen again.
“Maybe it’s happening right now, I don’t know, but the point is the president [of the] United States is going to wage war on narcoterrorist organizations,” Rubio said, according to a State Department readout.
The Pentagon has not released further details about the boat or the strike on Tuesday.
Rubio told reporters that “a boat full of cocaine or fentanyl” was an immediate threat to the United States and that Trump had the right to “eliminate” it “under exigent circumstances.”
“We’re not going to sit back anymore and watch these people sail up and down the Caribbean like a cruise ship. It’s not going to happen. It’s not going to happen anymore,” Rubio said.
The Trump administration last month doubled the reward for information leading to the arrest of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro to $50 million, accusing him of links to drug trafficking and criminal groups.
Earlier this week, Maduro told reporters that he believes the Trump administration is seeking regime change in Venezuela and that in response, he “declared maximum preparedness for the defense of Venezuela.”
Previously, Venezuela’s government and Maduro have denied U.S. claims that the country and its leadership play a key role in major international drug trafficking, saying Tren de Aragua was eliminated in 2023.
A U.S. appeals court issued an order on Wednesday blocking the Trump administration from deporting large quantities of Venezuelan illegal immigrants accused of being gang members under the Alien Enemies Act, and said the move is likely illegal.
The Department of Homeland Security announced the end of deportation protections for some Venezuelans under the Temporary Protected Status program in a Wednesday statement.
Reuters contributed to this report.
