President Donald Trump announced a U.S. strike in the southern Caribbean against a drug-carrying vessel that departed Venezuela and was operated by the Tren de Aragua gang, reporting that 11 people were killed. A circulated video appears to show a multi-engine speedboat exploding and briefly burning, but the footage is grainy and does not clearly show 11 occupants or visible drug stashes. Doubts are raised about military involvement in the hemispheric drug war because military deployment can corrupt institutions and worsen governance. Concerns also exist that the strike may serve as a political diversion from concurrent legal controversies.
President Donald Trump said Tuesday the U.S. has carried out a strike in the southern Caribbean against a drug-carrying vessel that departed from Venezuela and was operated by the Tren de Aragua gang. The president said in a social media posting that 11 people were killed in the rare U.S. military operation in the Americas, a dramatic escalation in the Republican administration's effort to stem the flow of narcotics from Latin America.
The video appears to show a long, multi-engine speedboat traveling at sea when a bright flash of light bursts over the craft. The boat is then briefly seen covered in flames. The video, which is largely in black and white, is not clear enough to see if the craft is carrying as many as 11 people. The video also did not show any large or clear stashes of drugs inside the boat.
I remain dubious about any involvement of the military in our doomed and futile "war" on drugs. At one time or another, the drug trade has corrupted the legal system and every level of law enforcement. Get the military in there with both feet, and pretty soon you wind up with the South Vietnamese army. That possibility gets immeasurably worse when the process is run by a half-dead elderly man surrounded by malignant meatheads.
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