The United States armed forces announced this Wednesday (17) that they had carried out a new deadly attack on a ship in the Pacific, killing four men.
“Intelligence confirmed that the vessel was traveling a known drug smuggling route in the Eastern Pacific and was involved in drug smuggling operations,” the U.S. Southern Command said in an article on X.
Since the beginning of September, the American army, under the command of Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth, has targeted suspected drug trafficking boats in the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific, destroying, with this new attack, at least 27 ships and killing at least 99 people.
The attacks were accompanied by a massive US military deployment in the Caribbean, which includes the world’s largest aircraft carrier and a number of other warships.
Trump reaffirms that the goal is to fight drug trafficking, while Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro says it is a pretext for regime change in Caracas.
Last week, the United States also captured an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela. If the measure is repeated, the consequence could be the suffocation of the Venezuelan economy. The country has the largest oil reserves in the world and its economy depends on exports of this product.
Also on Wednesday, the Maduro regime requested the convening of a meeting of the United Nations Security Council to discuss the United States’ “continued aggression” against the country. The body is expected to meet to discuss the issue on the 23rd, but the chances of a decision in favor of Caracas are zero, since Washington has a veto.
On Tuesday, Trump declared a blockade against all U.S.-sanctioned oil tankers entering or leaving Venezuela — the clearest step toward open war between the two countries yet. The Maduro regime depends on revenues from oil exports, a crucial pillar of the Venezuelan economy.
In response, the dictator called the blockade irrational and a “grotesque threat”, and the Venezuelan armed forces reaffirmed their support for the dictator. Also on Wednesday, the Venezuelan navy began escorting oil tankers in its territorial waters, according to a New York Times report, citing U.S. authorities monitoring the movements.
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