US kills 4 in latest Pacific Ocean attack as Venezuela tension spirals

Al Jazeera:

The United States military said it killed four people in its latest attack on a vessel in the eastern Pacific Ocean, announcing the “lethal” strike after resolutions seeking to rein in President Donald Trump’s aggression towards Venezuela were voted down by US lawmakers.

US Southern Command (SOUTHCOM), which is leading the burgeoning “Southern Spear” military operation in the Latin America region, said the attack on Wednesday targeted “four male narco-terrorists” without providing any evidence that the destroyed vessel was involved in drug trafficking.

“The vessel was transiting along a known narco-trafficking route in the Eastern Pacific and was engaged in narco-trafficking operations,” SOUTHCOM said in a post on social media alongside a video showing a speedboat being destroyed.

Ordered by US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, the attack brings to almost 100 the number of people killed in US strikes on 26 vessels – that Washington has acknowledged – in the eastern Pacific Ocean and Caribbean since September.

While legal experts have accused the US of carrying out a campaign of extrajudicial killings in international waters, Trump has justified the attacks as necessary to halt the flow of drugs into the US from drug cartels, particularly those based in Venezuela.

On Wednesday, the Republican-majority House of Representatives voted 213 to 211 against a resolution directing the president to remove US forces from hostilities with or against Venezuela without congressional authorisation.