US President Donald Trump has justified recent US strikes on boats in the Caribbean as “self-defense” against “designated terrorist organisations” that traffic drugs into the US.
Declaring drug cartels to be unlawful combatants, he said the United States is now in an “armed conflict” with them, according to a Trump administration memo obtained by a leading press agency on Thursday.
“The President determined that the United States is in a non-international armed conflict with these designated terrorist organisations,” the memo says.
It further states that Trump directed the Pentagon to “conduct operations against them pursuant to the law of armed conflict.”
“The United States has now reached a critical point where we must use force in self-defense and defense of others against the ongoing attacks by these designated terrorist organisations,” the memo reads.
Also Read: US Navy strikes 2nd narco-terror boat near Venezuela
“As we have said many times, the President acted in line with the law of armed conflict to protect our country from those trying to bring deadly poison to our shores, and he is delivering on his promise to take on the cartels and eliminate these national security threats from murdering more Americans,” White House deputy press secretary, Anna Kelly said.
This signals a potential new moment not just in the administration’s willingness to reach beyond the norms of presidential authority to wage war, but in Trump’s stated “America First” agenda that favours non-intervention overseas.
While it appears to represent an extraordinary assertion of presidential war powers, with Trump associating the trafficking of drugs into the US with armed conflict requiring the use of military force, it also raises pertinent questions about how far the White House intends to use its war powers, and, more importantly, if Congress will exert its authority to approve – or ban – such military actions.
The memo references a September 15 strike by the US on boats in the Caribbean that the administration accused of ferrying drugs, at least two of which were vessels that originated from Venezuela. The strikes followed up a buildup of US maritime forces in the Caribbean unlike any seen in recent times.
It “resulted in the destruction of the vessel, the illicit narcotics, and the death of approximately 3 unlawful combatants.”
Previously, the first military strike by the US was carried out on September 2 on what the Trump administration said was a drug-carrying speedboat, killing 11 people. Trump claimed it was operated by the Tren de Aragua gang, which was listed by the US as a foreign terrorist organisation this year.
Pentagon officials, however, could not provide a list of the designated terrorist organisations at the centre of the conflict, a matter that was a major source of frustration for lawmakers of both major political parties, who have raised objections and pressed Trump to go to Congress and seek war powers authority for such operations.
Several senators as well as human rights groups have questioned the legality of Trump’s actions, calling it potential overreach of executive authority in part because the military was used for law enforcement purposes.
Additionally, the Trump administration has yet to explain how the military assessed the boats’ cargo and determined the passengers’ alleged gang affiliation before the strikes.
Senator Jack Reed of Rhode Island, the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committees, and a former Army officer who served in the 82nd Airborne Division, said that while the drug cartels are “despicable and must be dealt with by law enforcement,” the “Trump Administration has offered no credible legal justification, evidence, or intelligence for these strikes”.
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