U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio defended on Wednesday the U.S. military’s strike against a vessel operated by a suspected Venezuelan gang and warned that such attacks “will happen again.”
Rubio stated that previous U.S. efforts to stop the flow of illegal drugs to the United States and beyond have not succeeded.
“They only stop when you blow them up, when you eliminate them,” Rubio said during a visit to Mexico, adding that this is just the beginning of a larger U.S. operation in the region.
“The United States blew up [the boat], and this will happen again. Maybe it’s happening right now,” Rubio said at a press conference.
“If you are on a boat full of cocaine or fentanyl, or whatever, heading toward the United States, then you are an immediate threat to the United States,” he added.
Earlier, U.S. President Donald Trump stated that the military killed 11 people during strikes carried out on September 2 against the Venezuelan vessel suspected of carrying illegal drugs.
This was the first operation since the Trump administration deployed warships to the southern Caribbean.
“There’s a lot of drugs coming into our country… This drug was coming from Venezuela,” Trump said, also releasing a video he claimed was from the September 2 strike.
Trump added that the U.S. military had identified the crew members of the vessel as members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, which the U.S. designated as a terrorist organization in September.
The U.S. leader reiterated accusations that Tren de Aragua is controlled by Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, a claim consistently denied by Caracas.
Venezuela’s Minister for Communications, Freddy Ñañez, claimed that the video published by Trump was artificially generated.
Last month, the U.S. doubled its reward for information leading to Maduro’s arrest, offering $50 million, after accusing him of links to drug trafficking and criminal groups.
Officials in Venezuela have consistently stated that Tren de Aragua is no longer active in the country after the gang was dismantled during a prison operation in 2023.
