US Congressmen issue ultimatum to Hegseth to release video of first Caribbean bombing

MADRID, December 10 (EUROPA PRESS) –

Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth received an ultimatum Tuesday from members of Congress from the Democratic and Republican parties who threatened to withhold part of his travel budget until he provides never-before-seen footage of the military’s attacks on alleged drug boats in the Caribbean, along with copies of the corresponding orders, in light of the controversial attack on survivors of one of the attacks.

The ultimatum, the failure of which would reduce the aforementioned budget by 75 percent, was included in the provisions introduced in the final text of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), approved by both parties and amid the scrutiny the Department of Defense faces after the aforementioned attack, which killed the two survivors of a boat that originally carried eleven crew members.

Approval of the NDAA is required, and the version that includes these provisions is expected to be voted on in the House of Representatives this week, after which it would be submitted to the Senate.

Some Republicans have criticized the campaign of extrajudicial killings on the high seas, including Rep. Don Bacon, a member of the House Armed Services Committee. “It is time to show Hegseth that we are an independent branch,” he stressed in a text message to the news portal The Hill.

For his part, Democrat John Garamendi, a member of the same commission, argued that “if Hegseth has nothing to hide, the publication of all the audiovisual images of the ship attacks in Venezuela should not pose a problem.” “I urge Hegseth to do the right thing and let the American people judge the whole story for themselves,” he added for the same media.

Despite this, the defense secretary was reluctant to commit to releasing the video, while the country’s president, Donald Trump, said he would leave the decision in the hands of Hegseth himself.

The controversy arose from the Pentagon’s confirmation of a second attack against the first ship attacked by the American army, claiming that it was carrying drugs. After the first killed nine of the eleven crew members and caused serious damage to the boat, a second bombing took the lives of the other two.

Although the Navy Manual prohibits attacks aimed at killing survivors, the Trump administration defended the legality of the decision, made by Adm. Frank Bradley, special operations commander, with Hegseth’s authorization.

To date, the United States has carried out 22 bombing raids on ships in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean, killing at least 86 people. Yet Hegseth said last week that they had “barely started.”