By Ryan Morgan
The U.S. government is repatriating two survivors of an Oct. 16 military strike that targeted a submersible vessel in the Caribbean Sea, President Donald Trump announced on Oct. 18.
“It was my great honor to destroy a very large DRUG-CARRYING SUBMARINE that was navigating towards the United States on a well known narcotrafficking transit route,” Trump wrote in a post on his Truth Social platform on Saturday.
Trump said the targeted vessel was operated by four individuals, whom he described as terrorists. He said two of the individuals were killed while the other two survived the strike.
He also shared footage showing the vessel sustaining an explosive barrage.
The president appeared to use the social media post to confirm reporting, first published by Reuters, that U.S. forces had recovered two survivors from the Oct. 16 strike. He said the two individuals, one from Colombia and the other from Ecuador, were being returned to their countries of origin to face prosecution.
The submersible craft is at least the sixth vessel operating in the Caribbean Sea to come under fire from U.S. forces since September. The Trump administration has described this recent campaign of strikes as a “non-international armed conflict“ with drug cartels.
“At least 25,000 Americans would die if I allowed this submarine to come ashore,” Trump said in his social media post on Saturday.
Since Trump took office, the U.S. State Department has designated 13 different Latin American and Caribbean cartels and criminal organizations as foreign terrorist organizations.
The recent U.S. strikes on suspect vessels in the Caribbean Sea also come amid a growing pressure campaign against Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, whom the Trump administration has accused of backing cartels in his country. Maduro has denied the accusations.
On Aug. 7, the U.S. Department of Justice announced it had doubled the award for information leading to Maduro’s arrest, from $25 million to $50 million. Days later, the White House confirmed the deployment of several U.S. warships and a contingent of U.S. Marines to the Caribbean.
Sept. 2 marked a new phase in the U.S. pressure campaign against Venezuela, as U.S. forces conducted their first strike against a suspected drug boat.
Announcing the fatal Sept. 2 attack, Trump said the vessel was being operated by members of Tren de Aragua, a transnational criminal organization that originated in Venezuela and which the U.S. government designated as a foreign terrorist organization this year. Trump said Tren de Aragua is “operating under the control of Nicolas Maduro.”
This week, Trump confirmed reports that he has also authorized the Central Intelligence Agency to conduct covert operations within Venezuela.
