The armed forces of USA officially reported that this Wednesday a new attack against an alleged one Drug boat in Pacific waterswith a remaining balance of four dead.
The statement was released a few minutes before the speech Donald Trump He demanded that Venezuela return the assets it seized years ago from oil companies in his country, which many believed would declare war on the country led by Nicolás Maduro.
“On December 17, Joint Task Force Southern Spear, led by Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, conducted the operation a deadly kinetic attack against a ship operated by a designated terrorist organization in international waters,” it said at the beginning of the official text of the US Southern Command.
He then specified: “The secret service has confirmed that…” The ship was traveling on a well-known drug trafficking route in the Eastern Pacific and took part in it Drug trafficking operations” and that “four male narco-terrorists died.”
On the contrary, he always assured on the social network X that “no member of the US armed forces was injured.”
On December 17th at the direction of @SecWar Pete Hegseth of Joint Task Force Southern Spear conducted a deadly kinetic attack on a ship operated by a designated terrorist organization in international waters. Intelligence confirmed that the ship was traveling on a known course. pic.twitter.com/Yhu3LSOyea
– US Southern Command (@Southcom) December 18, 2025
Since the anti-drug campaign began in September, the United States has carried out more than 25 such attacks, killing at least 99 people.
For this election campaign, Trump ordered the deployment of a large fleet led by the world’s largest aircraft carrier, the Gerald Ford, in the Caribbean, as well as fighter jets in Puerto Rico and marines.
The main goal of the campaign is Putting pressure on Caracaswhose government is branded a “narcoterrorist” by Washington.
That pressure increased significantly last week when an oil tanker was seized off the coast of Venezuela, an operation described as “piracy” by the government of Nicolás Maduro.
Trump on Tuesday ordered a “blockade” of all sanctioned oil tankers entering or leaving the country, and Venezuela responded by announcing that its navy would escort the tankers.
This Wednesday now in one television message to the nation, The Republican praised his management, assured that the American economy was fully recovering and sharply questioned immigrants and the political system that preceded him. Also He devoted a moment to the conflict with Venezuela.
In this vein, the leader of the White House called for the Nicolás Maduro regime to be dissolved to return assets confiscated from US oil companies Years ago, he again justified his announcement of a “blockade” against ships carrying crude oil traveling to or from the South American country in violation of US sanctions.
Trump pointed to lost U.S. investments in Venezuela when asked about his new tactics – part of a months-long pressure campaign against President Nicolás Maduro – and argued that his administration’s moves to confront leaders in Caracas were motivated at least in part by disputes over oil investments as well as allegations of drug trafficking. Some sanctioned oil tankers are already avoiding sailing to Venezuela.
“We’re not going to let anyone through who shouldn’t,” Trump told reporters about his call for a blockade.
And he concluded: “Remember, they took all of our energy rights. They took all of our oil not long ago. And we want it back. They took it, they took it illegally.”
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