Experts Say Trump Administration’s Deadly Boat Attack Amounts to Extrajudicial Killings

Experts are condemning the U.S. military strike that killed 11 people on a boat in the Caribbean on Tuesday, saying that the bombing was in violation of international law. The Trump administration has claimed — without providing evidence — that the casualties of the strike were members of Tren de Aragua, a Venezuela-based gang that it has designated a foreign terrorist organization.

“Earlier this morning, on my Orders, U.S. Military Forces conducted a kinetic strike against positively identified Tren de Aragua Narcoterrorists in the SOUTHCOM area of responsibility,” Trump posted on his social media platform, Truth Social, following the attack. “Please let this serve as notice to anybody even thinking about bringing drugs into the United States of America. BEWARE!”

The White House posted an image on social media of Trump looking at a phone showing footage of the boat being hit. “TERRORISTS ELIMINATED. ADIÓS,” the post says, with an emoji of a person placing items in the trash.

In another post, the White House said: “ON VIDEO: U.S. Military Forces conducted a strike against Tren de Aragua Narcoterrorists. The strike occurred while the terrorists were at sea in International waters transporting illegal narcotics, heading to the U.S. The strike resulted in 11 terrorists killed in action.”

The Trump administration has circulated a brief black and white video that it says shows the fatal strike. AP reports that the White House “did not immediately explain how the military determined that those aboard the vessel were Tren de Aragua members.” The outlet also noted that the video “is not clear enough to see if the craft is carrying as many as 11 people” and “did not show any large or clear stashes of drugs inside the boat.”

Experts say the administration’s deadly strike violated international law.

“Labeling someone a terrorist and deploying the military does not make them a military target,” Vincent Warren, executive director of the Center for Constitutional Rights, said in a statement to Truthout. “These actions amount to an extra-judicial killing, a violation of international law, which should raise extraordinary concerns.”

“Without clear limitations on presidential and military authority, we may find this administration claiming that it can execute alleged drug dealers at home without any judicial process as happened under the Duterte regime in the Philippines,” Warren continued. Former president of the Philippines Rodrigo Duterte is now at the International Criminal Court in The Hague, accused of committing crimes against humanity, including rape, murder, and torture, in the context of the government’s so-called “war on drugs” campaign.

“Using military forces to kill alleged drug traffickers is an act of murder, not war,” Wells Dixon, a senior attorney with the Center for Constitutional Rights, told Truthout in a statement following the attack on Tuesday.

Civil rights attorney Alec Karakatsanis called the killings “extra-judicial assassinations — a preemptive death penalty with no process — for vague alleged nonviolent drug distribution offenses.”

Trump has a long history of calling for U.S. intervention to overthrow Venezuela’s government, and has escalated tensions in recent days by building up the U.S. military’s presence near the country. The Trump administration has also frequently accused people of belonging to Tren de Aragua to justify violations of their human rights.

Shortly after taking office, Trump signed an executive order declaring Tren de Aragua a foreign terrorist organization and subsequently invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to send more than 250 Venezuelans living in the United States to El Salvador’s notoriously brutal prison, CECOT. The administration repeatedly accused the men of being Tren de Aragua members, despite the fact that a majority did not have criminal convictions.

After four months, they were sent home to Venezuela in a prisoner swap deal between Venezuela and the United States. The men, including a soccer coach, a makeup artist, and a musician, have reported that they were physically and psychologically tortured at the prison.

On September 2, an appeals court ruled that the Trump administration could not use the 18th century-era law to expedite removals of people it accused of being Tren de Aragua members. Before Trump, the law had been used just three times in American history — during the War of 1812, World War I, and World War II. It was last invoked to justify the internment of thousands of people with Japanese ancestry during World War II.