Marco Rubio defends the US blowing up a Venezuelan | Political News

Secretary of State Marco Rubio defended the US navy’s controversial transfer to blow up an allegedly drug-carrying boat coming from Venezuela, warning drug traffickers that the administration won’t hesitate to resort to violence.

President Donald Trump announced the strike on Tuesday during an unrelated press convention at the Oval Office, saying the navy had “shot out” the boat “moments ago.” The president said the boat was in worldwide waters and was transporting unlawful narcotics sure for the US.

The president later said on Truth Social that 11 Tren de Aragua gang members had been killed in the assault. He also posted a video that confirmed a navy strike on a small boat in the ocean. It stays unclear what medicine the vessel was believed to have been carrying.

“Please let this serve as notice to anybody even thinking about bringing drugs into the United States of America. BEWARE!” the president wrote on Truth Social.

The obvious assault shortly drew online criticism, with some questioning the lack of due course of and the veracity of claims that the 11 killed have been gang members.

But Rubio, a longtime critic of the Venezuelan authorities, defended the assaults on Wednesday, assuring that the victims have been all gang members.

“The United States has long, for many, many years, established intelligence that allows us to interdict and stop drug boats, and we did that and it doesn’t work,” he said during a press convention in Mexico. “What will stop them is when you blow them up, when you get rid of them.”

The Secretary of State also confirmed the president’s remarks on the assaults, saying the deadly strike was carried out “in the southern Caribbean against a drug vessel which had departed from Venezuela and was being operated by a designated narco-terrorist organization.”

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International law consultants, however, have denounced the US’ operation, saying the Trump— or any— administration doesn’t have the proper to conduct extrajudicial murders on suspected drug traffickers.

“There is zero evidence of self-defense here. Looks like a massacre of civilians at sea,” according to Adam Isacson, director for protection oversight at research and advocacy group, Washington Office on Latin America. “Even if they had drugs aboard, that’s not a capital offense.”

Lethal pressure against civilians in worldwide waters “is a crime if not in self-defense,” according to Isacson. “‘Not yielding to pursuers’ or ‘suspected of carrying drugs’ doesn’t carry a death sentence.”

The latest assault is the latest indication of growing tensions between the Nicolas Maduro regime and the Trump administration. The US has beforehand accused Venezuela of working with drug cartels and teams like Tren de Aragua to appeal to narcotics to the nation. Last month, Attorney General Pam Bondi doubled the reward for Maduro’s arrest to $50 million.

On Monday, Maduro vowed to “declare a republic in arms” if the US attacked, including that the US deployments have been “the greatest threat that has been seen on our continent in the last 100 years.”