STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
President Trump says American forces destroyed what he described as a Venezuelan drug boat headed for the United States. He said yesterday that 11 people on board were killed. The president had already sent warships and troops to waters off the coast of Venezuela, which U.S. officials said was meant to fight drug trafficking, while the Venezuelan president claims the U.S. maneuvers are a prelude to some kind of invasion. John Otis covers Venezuela for NPR News. John, good morning.
JOHN OTIS, BYLINE: Good morning, Steve.
INSKEEP: As much as you know, what is the U.S. military operation?
OTIS: Well, President Trump has sent several destroyers and cruisers to the Caribbean Sea near South America. There's, you know, about 9,000 sailors and Marines. The idea is to go after traffickers who typically use small boats to run cocaine up to the U.S. Yesterday, at a news conference, Trump showed a video showing what looks to be about a 30-foot-long vessel with four outboard motors and several people moving around on board. Then comes this flash of an explosion as the boat seems to be blown apart. Now, Trump said this strike occurred in international waters and that 11, quote, "narco terrorists" were killed in the attack. He claims the dead were members of the Tren de Aragua. If you'll recall, that's this Venezuelan gang that Trump has been accusing of carrying out heinous crimes inside the U.S.
INSKEEP: OK. And I guess we should note that is the accusation of the United States. We don't know what evidence backs that up at this point. But we do know the U.S. military is on the scene off the coast of Venezuela. Why would the U.S. send such a large military force, as you described?
OTIS: Yeah. I mean, it's normally the U.S. Coast Guard that's in charge of drug interdiction at sea. But Trump's often about these big gestures. With immigration, it's been these, you know, massive deportations. And now with the drug war, it's turning out to be the U.S. armed forces. After yesterday's attack, Trump wrote on Truth Social, please let this serve as notice to anybody even thinking about bringing drugs into the United States. But the drug war has dragged on since Richard Nixon was president, and there's been little progress, and a lot of people look at this as overkill. This military deployment's costing millions of dollars a day, and so far, we have one destroyed boat.
INSKEEP: Was that destruction ethical?
OTIS: You know, that's a good question. As far as we know, U.S. authorities did not board the boat ahead of time to verify that it was, in fact, carrying drugs. And Trump has provided, as you mentioned, no evidence that the people on board who were killed were gang members - Tren de Aragua members. And already questions are being raised about the legality of the attack. Juan Gonzalez, who was a Latin American envoy for the Biden administration, said Trump is claiming this broad authority to sink any sort of vessel that he deems even tied to drug trafficking. But those are pretty loose rules of engagement and could lead to tragedy. You could see perhaps the killing of innocent fishermen or migrants.
INSKEEP: So I want to ask about these claims of an alleged invasion coming. We should note that a few thousand troops, even including Marines - nowhere near the number of people you would need to invade Venezuela. But there are ground troops involved, so how is Venezuela's president talking about this?
OTIS: Well, you know, President Nicolas Maduro's an authoritarian. He's crushed democracy, and he's deeply unpopular inside Venezuela. But now he's using this, you know, possible threat of an invasion to whip up nationalism. Trump would probably love to see regime change, but this flotilla is pretty small, and Trump's always been more about getting the U.S. out of foreign wars rather than getting the U.S. into new ones.
INSKEEP: John Otis, thanks so much.
OTIS: Thanks. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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