Ny amerikansk attack mot så kallad knarkbåt

The United States military began executing airstrikes on vessels in the Caribbean Sea in September 2025, positioned by the administration of President Donald Trump as a mission to fight maritime drug trafficking in Latin America to the US. In October, the strikes expanded to include the Eastern Pacific Ocean. The Trump administration alleged that the vessels were operated by groups it designated as narcoterrorists, including the Venezuelan criminal organization Tren de Aragua and the Colombian far-left guerilla group National Liberation Army, but has not publicized any evidence for the allegations. As part of what was later unveiled as Operation Southern Spear, the US began deploying Navy warships and personnel to the Caribbean in mid-August. Trump announced on 2 September that the US Navy had carried out the first airstrike in the Caribbean on a boat from Venezuela, killing all eleven people on the vessel; he released a video of the incident, which Venezuelan sources said had occurred on 1 September. The US indicated that military operations against drug cartels in Latin America would continue, and as of 23 January 2026, at least 117 people had been killed in at least 36 strikes on 37 vessels and the US had made its first strike on a land target within Venezuela. The strikes came amid tensions between the United States and Venezuela as Trump steadily increased pressure. Venezuela's Nicolás Maduro repeatedly accused the US of seeking regime change which some third-party sources agree with. Experts, human rights groups and international bodies have said the killings are illegal under US and international law, and the Colombian and Venezuelan governments have accused the US of extrajudicial murder. In 2025 the Republican-controlled US Senate twice rejected resolutions that would limit Trump's authority to continue military action against Venezuela or airstrikes against alleged drug vessels. On 3 January 2026, Maduro was captured and flown out of the country by US forces.