 "Rubio & Hegseth brief lawmakers on Trump’s boat strikes, leave key questions unanswered")
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Wednesday briefed lawmakers about strikes on boats in international waters. But they left key questions unanswered, such as the legality of the campaign and fears that these attacks could lead to a bigger conflict.
Rubio and Hegseth briefed Democratic and Republican leaders of both the chambers and senior members of national security committees, according to Reuters.
They defended US President Donald Trump’s campaign against boats purportedly carrying drugs. But critics have said that these attacks are illegal and these strikes —and the military build-up in the Caribbean— is a pretext to attack Venezuela in a bid to oust Nicolas Maduro, the country’s ruler.
After the briefing, Senator Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate intelligence committee, said the Trump administration’s failure to publicly explain its actions, including the legal justification, had damaged the confidence of the US public and partners in Latin America, as per The New York Times.
“Kinetic strikes without actually interdicting and demonstrating to the American public that these are carrying drugs and full of bad guys, I think, is a huge mistake that undermines confidence in the administration’s actions,” said Warner.
Since September, the US military has blown up at least 16 boats in the international waters of Caribbean Sea and Pacific and killed at least 67 people. The administration has neither identified any deceased nor provided any evidence of their involvement in drug trafficking.
Unanswered questions about legality, conflicting evidence
Neither Hegseth nor Rubio explained concerns about the legality of US strikes or conflicting evidence presented by the administration so far.
Trump’s senior officials also failed to provide the underlying strategy driving the purported counter-narcotics campaign.
Democrats said the briefing provided no clarity on the administration’s possible next steps in Venezuela. “Is there something imminent?” was a question left unanswered, said Senator Chris Coons of Delaware, a Democrat and member of the Foreign Relations Committee, after the briefing.
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View AllDemocratic Senator Chris Coons said he was “concerned about the lack of clear strategy and policy”, as per The Times.
“Even if at some point there was authority, how long does this last?” Warner said, noting that the strikes have been going on for months. He added: “There is no legal basis in any legal opinion that we have been discussing that addresses Venezuela in any shape.”
While Trump has claimed he has the authority to order summary killings in international waters by treating purported drug traffickers as enemy combatants, legal scholars and former officials have argued that such an approach violates both US policy and international law. Under longstanding US policy, suspected drug traffickers in international waters are intercepted by law enforcement agencies like the Coast Guard and brought to US soil for prosecution. They are not killed.
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