Did you know that Truthout is a nonprofit and independently funded by readers like you? If you value what we do, please support our work with a donation.
The top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee has called for a hearing on the Trump administration’s strikes in the Caribbean after the White House officially escalated its aggression to target Colombia as well as Venezuela, completely bypassing Congress.
Rep. Adam Smith (D-Washington) said in a statement that, over a month after the strikes first began, the Trump administration has yet to provide “any evidence” backing their claims justifying the attacks or showing their legal backing — which the administration clearly lacks, reports have said.
“President Trump and his administration continue to fail to answer pressing questions regarding the president’s orders to carry out lethal U.S. military strikes on boats in the Caribbean Sea,” Smith said. “They have failed to demonstrate the legality of these strikes, provide transparency on the process used or even a list of cartels that have been designated as terrorist organizations.”
“We have also yet to see any evidence to support the president’s unilateral determinations that these vessels or their activities posed imminent threats to the United States of America that warranted military force rather than law enforcement-led interdiction,” Smith went on, per The New York Times.
On Sunday, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth announced that the military had attacked another boat in the Caribbean. This brings the total death toll from publicly announced strikes to 32. The U.S. also detained two survivors of a strike last week before releasing them to their home countries of Ecuador and Colombia, the administration said.
This is the seventh publicly announced strike from the administration, and the first in which the military acknowledged targeting people associated with Colombia, rather than Venezuela, as the administration has previously said. However, Colombian President Gustavo Petro has said that previous strikes have targeted Colombians as well.
Further, on Sunday, Trump directly provoked Colombia, claiming without evidence that Petro, the nation’s first-ever leftist president, is “an illegal drug dealer.”
A hearing on the strikes is unlikely with Republicans in control of the House and its committees, and party leaders refusing to break with President Donald Trump. Republicans have also been absent from Congress amid the government shutdown, and it’s unclear when a deal will be struck to reopen it.
There has already been a shakeup in the administration over the strikes. Last week, Adm. Alvin Holsey announced his departure from the head of U.S. Southern Command, the division that oversees operations in Latin America.
This announcement is highly unusual, as he was less than a year into the three-year role. One current and one former U.S. official told the Times that the departure was due to Holsey’s concerns about the strikes.
“Never before in my over 20 years on the committee can I recall seeing a combatant commander leave their post this early and amid such turmoil,” Smith said of Holsey’s departure.
Smith has been critical of the attacks and has accused the administration of lying about their transparency over the attacks. Officials have been claiming to be transparent about the operation, but have stonewalled Congress, amid criticisms that the strikes are illegal and haven’t received approval by Congress.
Typically with military operations, “the committees are regularly briefed on the specific, very specific details — who was targeted and why, and what was the accumulation of intel and evidence that led to the strike. And they’ve always given us the answer,” Smith said in an interview with The New Republic last week.
“None of that has been given on these Venezuelan strikes. But Press Secretary [Karoline] Leavitt today saying, ‘we’ve been very transparent on this’ — that’s just a complete lie. They haven’t been transparent at all,” he went on.
Smith said that the committee should call Holsey to testify on the strikes and his departure. He also said that Democrats would suggest a subpoena to force administration officials to testify.
“This is the president of the United States unilaterally deciding to kill people who pose no direct threat to the United States of America,” Smith said. “That’s something that no one in the United States military should be part of.”
Press freedom is under attack
As Trump cracks down on political speech, independent media is increasingly necessary.
Truthout produces reporting you won’t see in the mainstream: journalism from the frontlines of global conflict, interviews with grassroots movement leaders, high-quality legal analysis and more.
Our work is possible thanks to reader support. Help Truthout catalyze change and social justice — make a tax-deductible monthly or one-time donation today.