CARACAS: Venezuela on Friday (Sep 19) accused the United States of waging an “undeclared war” in the Caribbean and called for a UN probe of American strikes that have killed over a dozen alleged drug traffickers on boats in recent weeks.
Washington has deployed warships to international waters off Venezuela’s coast, backed by F-35 fighters sent to Puerto Rico in what it calls an anti-drug operation.
“It is an undeclared war, and you can already see how people, whether or not they are drug traffickers, have been executed in the Caribbean Sea. Executed without the right to a defense,” Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino Lopez said as he attended a military exercise in response to the US “threat”.
His remarks came just hours before US President Donald Trump announced another military strike on a boat, claiming three more alleged “narcoterrorists” were killed, bringing the total number of deaths in recent weeks to 17.
He did not say when the attack took place, and only specified that it occurred in the US Southern Command area of responsibility, which includes Central and South America, as well as the Caribbean.
The strikes have prompted debate over the legality of the killings, with drug trafficking itself not a capital offense under US law.
Washington has also not provided specific details to back up its claims that the boats targeted have actually been trafficking drugs.
Venezuelan Attorney General Tarek William Saab claimed that “the use of missiles and nuclear weapons to murder defenseless fishermen on a small boat are crimes against humanity that must be investigated by the UN”.
The biggest US naval deployment in the Caribbean in decades has stoked fears the United States is planning to attack Venezuelan territory.
On Wednesday, Venezuela launched three days of military exercises on its Caribbean island of La Orchila in response to the perceived threat from a US flotilla of seven ships and a nuclear-powered submarine.
La Orchila is close to the area where the United States intercepted and held a Venezuelan fishing vessel for eight hours over the weekend.
